Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• Construction Pro-Habitat inc. brought a contractual civil liability claim against its former administrative accounting assistant, Geneviève Thibault, for fraudulent misappropriation of company funds.
• Between July 2025 and January 2026, Thibault made unauthorized Interac transfers, fraudulent vendor payments, and personal rent payments using company funds totalling $35,360.63.
• After Thibault's departure, the company discovered significant accounting disorganization, deleted computer files, and a diverted telephone line, requiring external financial and IT remediation at a combined cost of $13,544.75.
• Thibault defaulted by failing to respond to the summons, leaving the plaintiff's documentary and testimonial evidence uncontested.
• The court found that Thibault breached her obligations of loyalty and honesty under Article 2088 of the Civil Code of Québec, establishing fault, damages, and causation.
• Two heads of the claim were rejected: $1,753.38 for QuickBooks training (normal onboarding cost) and $10,000 for non-pecuniary inconvenience (unavailable to a legal person).

Facts of the case

Construction Pro-Habitat inc. is a residential renovation company operating since November 2022. Geneviève Thibault was employed by the company from March 31, 2025 to January 9, 2026 as an administrative accounting assistant. In that role, she was responsible for billing, supplier payments, bookkeeping, and tax filings with Revenu Québec, and held direct authorized access to the company's bank accounts.

As part of her duties, Thibault was instructed to pay, from the company's account, the personal rent of a company director each month — a practice that was expressly authorized. Thibault lived in the same building as the director and shared the same landlord. In January 2026, following a missed payment, the landlord contacted the director and revealed that the company's bank account had also been used to pay Thibault's personal rent — an arrangement for which no authorization existed. This disclosure prompted the company to conduct a full review of its bank records.

The review revealed that between September 5 and December 9, 2025, Thibault had made four unauthorized rent payments to her own landlord from company funds, totalling $4,419.57. The company also discovered a series of payments to vendors identified as "Geneviève Thibault" and "RONA TR," all of which were deposited into a personal bank account linked to Thibault's phone number. Inquiries with the Rona store in Trois-Rivières and its account statements confirmed that none of these payments had ever been received by the supplier. Between September 1, 2025 and January 9, 2026, Thibault had submitted 23 fraudulent invoices totalling $26,342.08, bringing the combined total of diverted rent and false invoice payments to $30,761.65. Additionally, between July 21 and December 3, 2025, Thibault made 14 unauthorized Interac transfers to herself totalling $4,598.98, with no supporting documentation provided. The aggregate amount misappropriated across all three schemes was $35,360.63.

Following Thibault's termination on or around January 9, 2026, the company discovered significant disorganization in its accounting records: tax returns had not been filed and supplier invoices had gone unpaid. Thibault had also deleted numerous computer files before her departure, and the company's telephone line had been diverted, causing a two-week communications disruption. Construction Pro-Habitat inc. retained an external financial controller to rebuild its accounting and engaged outside IT services to recover data and verify system integrity. These remediation costs totalled $13,200 for accounting reorganization and $344.75 for IT services. The company also incurred $327.74 in interest charges resulting from unpaid supplier invoices. Outstanding tax penalties and late-filing charges remained unquantified, as no evidence was presented to establish those amounts.

Contractual and statutory obligations at issue

The employment relationship between the parties was governed by an indefinite-term contract subject to the general rules of obligations under the Civil Code of Québec. Article 1375 requires contracts to be performed in good faith, and Article 1434 extends contractual obligations to all consequences flowing from the nature of the agreement, trade usage, equity, or the law. Article 2088 specifically provides that an employee must carry out her work with care and diligence, and must act with loyalty and honesty toward her employer. The claim was grounded in contractual civil liability under Article 1458 of the Civil Code, requiring proof on a balance of probabilities of fault, damages, and a causal link between the two.

Court's reasoning and analysis

The court found that Construction Pro-Habitat inc. had discharged its burden of proof. The documentary and testimonial evidence — bank statements, supplier account records, payroll records, and IT reports — established on a preponderance of probabilities that Thibault had misappropriated $35,360.63 in company funds through fraudulent payments and unauthorized transfers. Because Thibault failed to appear and did not contest the evidence, it stood uncontradicted. The court held that these acts constituted a breach of Thibault's duty of loyalty and honesty under Article 2088 and a civil fault under Article 1458, and that the causal link between the fault and the company's losses was clearly established.

The court awarded direct financial losses alongside the accounting, IT, and interest costs, for a total compensable amount of $49,233.12. It rejected the $1,753.38 claim for QuickBooks training costs on the basis that such expenses represent ordinary onboarding costs and do not qualify as a direct and immediate consequence of the fault under Article 1607. The $10,000 claim for troubles and inconvenience was also dismissed: as a legal person, Construction Pro-Habitat inc. is not capable of suffering subjective moral injury and therefore cannot claim non-pecuniary damages of that nature.

Ruling and outcome

The court allowed the claim in part. Construction Pro-Habitat inc. was the successful party. Justice Nathalie Lavigne of the Court of Québec ordered Thibault to pay the company $49,233.12, together with legal interest and the additional indemnity under Article 1619 of the Civil Code of Québec, running from April 1, 2026 — the date of service — as well as court costs.