The presiding judge was Judge Hogan, who was a substitute judge from the Okanagan. Martin started off by threatening me with criminal charges over the warrant, but Judge Hogan patiently explained to him that the warrant came from a judge, not from me. Martin then threatened me with a counter-suit for $100,000, on the grounds that the software I wrote didn't work. Since Martin wasn't in court on June 30, he was perhaps unaware that Stripp had already admitted in court that the money was owed. I'm not holding my breath waiting for this counter-suit to happen; given Martin's track record, it's not likely that any lawyer in the Lower Mainland will do any work for him unless all costs are paid up front.

Martin also stated that he was unaware of the default hearing on May 26. He said that my original claim had been settled by the agreement we signed on August 25, 2004, and entered a copy of this agreement as evidence. Thanks, Gord.

It was then my turn to talk, and I immediately pointed out that the agreement that Martin just showed to the judge committed him, in writing, to pay me $8,000 plus interest, and he had paid only $2,667.66 of it. I also told the judge about the phone conversation that I had with Martin after the 180 days has expired, including the remark about breaking legs. (Martin immediately denied saying this.) I then read the first couple of sentences of the subsequent email that I sent to Martin asking him to pay up.

Martin asked to judge to remove the warrant from the court records, along with my statement about his leg-breaking threat. The judge wasn't having any of this. Unfortunately, the file he had on the case had very little information about the May 26 default hearing, and he gave some credence to Martin's claim that he didn't know about it. There was also some discussion of who, exactly, speaks for Empery Software. Martin claimed that there are actually 10 million shares out there for Empery Software, that Stripp still owns 15% of them, and that the president of Empery Software is Don Wilson, who is also involved with the National Credit Counsellors of Canada. What Judge Hogan decided to do was to bring this case back before Judge Alexander. Martin will have to appear again, but he is welcome to bring along anyone else who is willing to act on behalf of Empery Software. The date for this hearing hasn't been set yet.