Abattis denies causing numbered company mental anguish
2012-03-19 14:43 ET - Street Wire
by Mike Caswell
Abattis Biologix Corp. denies that it owes any money to a numbered company that claims to have suffered anxiety, depression and mental anguish over an unpaid $150,000 fee. Abattis says it would not have hired the numbered company because its principal, Ted Nitta, was under investigation by the B.C. Securities Commission.
Abattis is responding to a lawsuit it faces in the Supreme Court of British Columbia from 0740567 B.C. Ltd., which says it was never paid after it helped Abattis obtain a listing on the Canadian National Stock Exchange. 0740567 claimed it had a role in developing a project that qualified the company for a CNSX listing. In return, Abattis was to pay $150,000.
According to the suit, Abattis never paid the fee, resulting in 0740567 suffering a number of injuries. 0704567 included a comprehensive list of those injuries, which were: increased susceptibility to early death; increased susceptibility to future injuries; distress, anxiety and depression; humiliation; mental anguish; loss of reputation; loss of dignity; and loss of enjoyment of life.
0740567 sought damages, court costs and interest. Vancouver lawyer Kevin McLean filed the suit on the company's behalf.
Abattis's response
In its response to the suit, filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Friday, March 16, Abattis denies that it did anything wrong. The company says that Mr. Nitta approached it in June, 2009, looking to sell it the rights to a medicine designed to fight the flu. The company ultimately agreed to buy the rights, and issued 25 million shares in consideration. This gave Mr. Nitta absolute control over Abattis, as it only had 26 million shares issued at the time.
According to the response, Mr. Nitta then demanded that the company pay $150,000 in legal fees associated with the development of the flu formula. The company refused until Mr. Nitta threatened to use his control block to entirely replace the management. Abattis admits it did then agree to pay the money, but it says the promise was "gratuitous, extracted in the circumstances" and is not binding.
Abattis denies that it hired Mr. Nitta to help it list on the CNSX, and says it would not have done so because of a BCSC investigation he faced at the time. (The regulator claimed that he improperly raised $3.5-million for a private entity called Venturex Global Investment Corp. Most of the investors were his clients from an insurance and mutual fund business that he ran. He settled the case in May, 2011, agreeing to a 15-year ban from trading and from serving as an officer or director of any issuer.)
Abattis further denies that it inflicted mental anguish or any of the other injuries that 0740567 claimed to have suffered. The response notes that 0740567 is a corporation and is not capable of sustaining such injuries.
Vancouver lawyer Ritchie Clark filed the response on behalf of Abattis and two other defendants in the case, chief executive officer Mike Withrow and former CEO Gil Schneider.
Abattis, a thin trader, closed at five cents Tuesday. |
