Quebec puts brakes on litigious hypnotist

   Bruno Leduc, a hypnotist, has been declared a vexatious litigant after laying down an eye-popping 70 lawsuits at small claims court.
   Leduc would sue with great frequency over stuff that many of us would seem like trivial interactions.     During one span two years ago he laid down 19 suits in about 14 weeks.
   Leduc will now require approval from a judge before any further lawsuit is accepted, although it appears that those already pending will get their day before a judge.
  Small claims court suits are limited to $7,000 and accuser and defendant represent themselves without lawyers. They cost under $200 to file.
   The straw that broke the camel's back was laid when Leduc sued employment ministry clerks, one for $240 for supposedly failing to properly explain the rules for paying for his contact lenses and another for almost $2,000 for stress and waste of time, as apparently their service wasn't up to his standards. One of those clerks, with the help of the Justice Ministry, then filed to get him classified in the vexatious litigant category.
    Here are some other examples of his suits, as described in court documents:
    He went to purchase a lawnmower at Costco and agreed to buy the floor display unit, as it was the only one remaining. It cost $270 but he offered $200. They offered to knock off ten bucks but he was unhappy with the experience and sued them for $501 plus $151 for legal fees. He then dropped the case, which was slated to be heard last January.
   He sued a McDonald's on Hamel Boul. in Quebec City $7,000 after an incident in which he complained of rude service and their refusal to provide their names. The McDonald's staff said Leduc never explained what his issue was, that he tossed his sandwich and blocked the drive-through, requiring police to come. Leduc got a doctor's letter in an attempt to delay some of this case but it was rejected and he lost.

    Leduc sued Air Canada after he was tossed off a flight from Florida to Montreal. He was the last to board and claimed a seat in first class but the flight attendant directed him to his proper seat. He complained that they failed to speak to him in French, although they later explained that he had never addressed them in French and would have been happy to do so. It was also noted that he speaks excellent English. The flight attendant said it was the first time she had to boot someone from a flight in her 16 years of service. Air Canada suggested that Leduc had contrived the confrontation for the purposes of creating a conflict. Leduc lost.
   He sued Air Transat for stress and an excess baggage fee he had to pay for his flight to Montreal from Paris. He lost. He sued Apple twice, once for $6,000 and another time for $3,500. He lost the second one but in the first case they just gave him another computer. He sued Rogers $269 for wasting his time on the phone and the Bank of Montreal $5,800 for some complicated issue and lost both. He sued Telus $1,648 for cell phone issues. He lost. Leduc sought $3,000 from KLM for a lost item in 2006. He lost. He sued La Capitale Insurance $850 for bad service, he lost. He sued the New England Tourism Centre $2,250 for not honouring his employment deal. He lost. He sued Transat and  the Dominican Republic Consulate for poor conditions he had to endure on a trip to the country but he desisted against the consulate. He sued a couple for $3,000 for failing to sell him their company, he lost.
   Other cases are pending: he sued a mental health facility $7,000 for allegedly unilaterally stopping his therapy. (He had also sued them about lying to him about a police issue. He lost that one). He sued Hotel Quebec for $1,226 for four nights, and other stuff which raised his total to $7,000. That case is pending. He sued three hospital staffers $5,000 each for bad treatment, and also sued a pair of Chateauguay police officers and a local Jean Coutu for mistreatment and sued Brunet pharmacy $500 for bad service as well, all pending.
   It appears that Leduc got the lawsuit bug in May 2002 when he won a $922 decision against Telus and then won another for $975 a couple of months later for unpaid work as a tourist guide.  He also won a $2,000 lawsuit in 2005 for a case where he was dismissed as a chauffeur. And he won a $290 lawsuit over an office chair in 2009.
   The jugements site displays only about 30 of the 70 cases referred to in the judgment dated Oct. 28 declaring him a vexatious litigant, so it's difficult to calculate Leduc's batting average, but there appears to be quite a few strikeouts in there.