Natacha Beim, who was a Business in Vancouver Forty under 40 winner in 2010, and her CEFA Systems Inc. is being sued by a franchisee who claims that Beim broke an agreement and has not returned money.
Wiser Education Inc. and Jessica Wiser and Bryan Rubin, who does business as Bryan Rubin Management, filed a lawsuit on December 7 that seeks $100,000 from both CEFA Systems and Natacha Beim and a further $52,500 from CEFA Systems.
The plaintiffs claim that they entered into a franchise agreement with CEFA Systems on April 29, 2010.
That agreement involved them paying a franchise fee of $50,000 plus GST for a total of $52,500 that allowed the plaintiffs to open a junior kindergarten school in the Tri Cities area, the plaintiffs allege.
They note in their notice of civil claim that they then determined that opening such a school was not feasible because they could not find the right location.
Wiser then allegedly discussed the possibility of buying an existing CEFA daycare in Langley from Beim. In May, 2010, in anticipation of an agreement being signed, Wiser allegedly paid $100,000, via Rubin, to acquire the franchise.
When the agreement was signed in June, 2010, the text said that there would be no participation by Jessica Wiser or Wiser Education Inc. in the franchise and that the money paid to date ($152,500) would be treated as a loan payable on demand, the plaintiffs allege.
The plaintiffs further allege that Beim and CEFA have never transferred the ownership of the business to the plaintiffs nor has either returned the $152,500.
Beim’s January 18 response to the civil claim disputes that she owes any money to Wiser, Wiser Education Inc. or Rubin.
“The defendants deny that the plaintiffs lent any monies to the defendants as alleged in the notice of civil claim,” Beim notes in her response to the notice of civil claim.
Beim claims that Wiser Inc. owns the Langley franchise and is on the hook for some of the $457,880 in losses that accrued between June 2010 and December 2012.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
