That’s Some Expensive Liquor

VANCOUVER, B.C. (CN) - A cleanup company disposed of 84 bottles of Chinese Moutai liquor worth $1,000 apiece, a homeowner claims in court.

Moutai, a clear liquor, is made from fermented sorghum. Jie Min Wang claims that the seven cases in his Vancouver home were not badly damaged in a July 20, 2014 flood for which his insurer Cox Insurance hired On Side Restoration Services to clean up. They also spirited away a case of Ergoutou, another sorghum liquor, Wang says.

He claims that On Side promised it would not dispose of anything from his home without his consent. But that's not what happened, he says in his June 17 complaint in British Columbia Supreme Court.

On Site "disposed or allegedly disposed of the seven cases of Moutai 2009" though the damage was minimal and didn't contaminate the sealed, ceramic bottles, he says.

Wang say On Side told him it had disposed of the liquor by mistake.

Regardless of what happened, Wang says, On Side "converted the Moutai for its own use."

The defendants are On Side, Cox Insurance Associates Adjusting Corp., Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, and Beacon Underwriting Ltd.

Want wants his seven cases of Moutai back, and the case of Ergoutou, and damages for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and unjust enrichment.

He is represented by James A. Henshall in Vancouver.

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