The Canadian court has made an exceptional ruling that a sex worker can sue her client to recover her unpaid fees.
This ruling of the court squashed the old rule which used to be that the court would not be used to enforce an illegal contract; a contract between a sex worker and her client is seen as an illegal contract and also repugnant to public policy which can not be enforced in the court of law but in this recent case of Brogan Leigh Sheehan v.Bradley Samuelson (2023 NSSM 27 CanLII) decided in April 2023 the Canadian court in the primary issue tabled before them which was “Can a sex worker sue to recover unpaid fees from a client”, The judge in its obiter dictum while ruling in favor of the claimant (the sex worker) stated thus; “for the reasons outlined below, based on the facts as I find them, I have concluded the answer is ‘yes’, that a sex worker can sue her client to recover her unpaid fees”.
What happened in this case was that a sex worker was contracted by a horny man to come and keep him company and “service him”. During their negotiation, the sex worker told the man that she charges per hour. They agreed on a price and the man sent the woman his location for the woman to meet him up. They ended up spending seven hours together, during which they had different kinds of sex multiple times.
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When the lady was about to leave, she demanded payment for the seven hours she spent with the man. The man claimed that he was having issues making the payment at that time to the lady and that the lady should go, promising he would sort out the payment much later. The woman left and waited for her fee. Much time passed and the man didn’t pay the lady, hence the lady decided to take the matter to court.
In court, the man’s defense was that the contract between him and the lady was an illegal contract since prostitution or hook-up is a criminal act and any contract to engage in a criminal act such as “hookup”, can not be enforceable in court. The man prayed the court to strike out the matter since it was below the jurisdiction of the court to sit on such a matter. The Claimant on the other hand argued that the law on enforceability of illegal contracts has evolved and there are many exceptions to the old rule that illegal contracts were void ab initio. This means that in effect the court can make an exception and hear a purportedly illegal contract and decide it on its merit.
After listening to both arguments, the court held that the claimant who is a sex worker is entitled to recover her fee and the accruing interest from the man.
This decision has therefore set the new judicial precedent in Canada that a sex worker can sue her client to recover her unpaid fees.