Bad bus ride refund ordered

Two Vancouver men who embarked on an ill-fated church trip to the Okanagan have won a refund from the bus company they hired.

BC Civil Resolution Tribunal member Peter Mennie ordered bus charter company D.W. Cholin Inc. to pay Michael Habib and Samuel Guindi, $3,331.74 for damages related to a July 21, 2023 trip to Kelowna and back to Vancouver, in a decision published this week.

The two men offered Mennie evidence showing that the bus’s air conditioning was not working for part of the trip, the driver was rude, the bus broke down, and that they didn’t even get a ride home, to boot.

Multiple witnesses, as well as a text message chain, reinforced their complaint, Mennie said.

The bus company, in turn, offered their own evidence claiming they were the aggrieved party. Their account fell short, Mennie said.

Mennie rejected a counterclaim from the bus company saying that it refused to take the church group back to Vancouver because passengers damaged the bus, refused to wear their seat belts, and that Habib threatened the bus driver.

"I do not accept the respondent’s allegations," Mennie said.

He said the bus company claimed the bus driver noticed the bus damage during the post-trip inspection in Kelowna. However, the bus driver sent text messages to Habib after arriving in Kelowna and none of these messages mention bus damage, seat belts, or threatening behaviour as reasons for cancelling the return trip.

"The respondent only said the bus was damaged after the applicants requested a refund," Mennie said.

“I find that the respondent breached the contract because the bus’s air conditioning broke for part of the trip, the bus driver was rude, aggressive, and made disparaging comments about the applicants’ religion, and the respondent did not return the church group to Vancouver,” Mennie wrote.

Mennie awarded the duo the bulk of the $4,137 the paid in a Nov. 22 decision, saying an implied term that the bus would be in good working order and that the bus driver would behave professionally.

The repayment must be made within 30 days.