A B.C. Supreme Court judge has denied spousal support payments to sasquatch-hunting man once busted for an illegal pot grow-op he started with cash from an accident settlement.
Allan Mark Finnbogason took his wife Eva Norseman (née Jakubisinova) to court to get spousal support as the couple separated.
Justice Robin Baird said in a Jan. 17 decision that the family law issues before him revolved around division of matrimonial property and whether Finnbogason was entitled to spousal support.
The two began living together in 1999, married in April 2000 and separated in August 2020. They had no children.
They had bought a house in Mission, B.C.
Finnbogason was born in Canada, Norseman in what was once Czechoslovakia. They met in the summer of 1999 while Norseman was on vacation, staying with her aunt in Pender Harbour, B.C.
Finnbogason was the aunt’s neighbour.
Finnbogason, then in his early 30s, testified he was on an approximately year-long “hiatus” from work and did not have money to pay rent. He moved in rent-free with Norseman and the aunt in exchange for helping them with chores around their property.
“In short order the parties became engaged and started to plan their wedding,” Baird said.
In November 1999, Finnbogason was helping a friend fix his truck at the Pender Harbour Mill when there was an explosion and the claimant was badly burned. He was in a coma for three weeks with 32 percent of his body burnt in varying degrees, his arms and chest the most severely.
While Finnbogason was in hospital, the aunt sold her Pender Harbour property.
The couple then moved in with his parents in Port Coquitlam.
Sasquatch hunting
Finnbogason negotiated a settlement of $200,000 in a lawsuit related to the burn incident.
He used $100,000 of the settlement funds to set up an illegal marijuana grow operation. He never saw any return on this investment as the operation was shut down by the police before he could get a crop out.
He was charged with narcotics offences, pled guilty, and was handed a conditional sentence of two years less a day and a $10,000 fine.
In January 2016, Finnbogason fell on some icy stairs outside a hotel in Sayward, B.C.
“He was in that remote part of Vancouver Island on one of his many expeditions in search of sasquatch, of whose existence he claims to be certain,” Baird said.
In a resulting mediated settlement in June 2019, Finnbogason received $216,690.29 after legal fees and disbursement.
In November of the same year, the couple used $136,946.90 of those funds as a down payment on a home in Campbell River, B.C. The property was registered in Norseman’s name.
Baird said Finnbogason wanted to keep the remainder of the settlement funds as “fun money” and for improvements to the property.
Against Norseman’s wishes, the two took out an $80,000 mortgage to cover the remainder of the purchase price.
In 2020, the couple separated.
He stayed in the house and began renting part of it. When the last renter moved out in March 2022, Finnbogason didn’t find a new tenant as he thought the house would be sold in the separation.
“As it happened, however, an original hearing date was adjourned and the trial ended up being delayed for two and a half years,” Baird said.
As Norseman had been responsible for the mortgages for the Mission and Campbell River properties, and began to struggle financially.
She finally stopped paying the Campbell River mortgage and taxes in August 2023 while Finnbogason continued to live on the property without tenants or paying bills.
The bank began foreclosure proceedings.
Baird ordered the equity from the Campbell River home to be divided unequally – with Finnbogason getting $180,000, and Norseman $120,000.
Baird dismissed the spousal support application.
“I am not satisfied on all of the evidence that he is totally disabled or that he cannot earn income from employment of some kind or other,” Baird said.
Baird dismissed Finnbogason’s claim that he cannot work, citing his newfound “hobby” of buying tractors and fixing them up for re-sale.
More sasquatch exploring
Baird said Finnbogason estimated he had sold 16 or so overhauled tractors since the couple’s separation, doubling his money each time.
“None of this income has found its way onto his annual tax returns,” Baird said.
And, Baird said, Finnbogason has failed to follow medical advice given to him to rehabilitate his injuries and mitigate his losses.
He had also claimed to have suffered a stroke.
“There was no sign of this during his lengthy turn in the witness box, and he conceded in cross-examination that he never sought medical attention for such a thing,” Baird said.
Moreover, Baird said, evidence from Finnbogason and his own witnesses cast doubt on his claims of incapacity.
“In addition to his tractor re-building activities, the claimant continues to enjoy camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch,” Baird said.
The judge said Finnbogason failed to get appropriately employed and to ensure rental income at the house.
Instead, Baird said, Finnbogason has looked to his former partner to support him.
“The claimant bears the onus of establishing that he is entitled to a share of the respondent’s modest income on non-compensatory principles, because in my view there is no other basis for considering it,” Baird said. “He has failed to do so.”
