Andrew Bates, Telegraph-Journal, Local Journalism Initiative
The owner of a St. Stephen building sold in a mortgage proceeding was ordered to pay more than $50,000 after no-showing a trial.
Justice Kathryn Gregory awarded a deficiency judgment to Dianne Marie Sullivan Wednesday last week as part of a lawsuit filed against Starshine Properties, Ltd. over a mortgage secured against a building at 9 Schoodic Street. According to the court documents, the business, which is registered in St. Stephen with an Edmonton mailing address, was forced to sell the property last year after defaulting on a $120,000 mortgage from Sullivan, who lives in St. Stephen.
Sullivan bought the property at a mortgage sale in July 2025 for $68,000, according to the statement of claim, and was seeking $56,791.35 to cover the remainder of the principal as well as accrued interest, taxes, legal fees and disbursement.
Starshine Properties, whose sole director is Annette Penkala, of Calgary, was registered as a corporation in November 2020 and was listed as the owner of 17 properties in St. Stephen as of August 2024. At least three properties owned by the firm have been the subject of closure orders under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act over concerns from neighbours about suspected drug activity. That included 9 Schoodic Street, where 12 people were evicted in 2022.
In May last year, provincial lawyer Richard Williams told a judge that it appears Penkala purchased the properties during the pandemic and “hasn’t managed to keep control of them.”
No representative from Starshine attended the trial on Feb. 4, with Sullivan’s lawyer Joshua Santimaw telling a judge by phone that they have not had contact after the initial service attempt and two attempts at substituted service. According to court documents, a service package was delivered to Penkala’s front door in Calgary, and notices were purchased in the Telegraph-Journal and the Calgary Herald as well as sent by email.
Brunswick News has made a request for comment to Starshine Properties and has not received a response.
The property at 9 Schoodic Street was sold in December 2021 for $149,000, according to Service New Brunswick, and sold for $68,000 in July 2024 before selling again for $43,500 in October of that year. It has a 2026 assessed value of $83,600, according to the property assessment online lookup.
According to the statement of claim, Sullivan lent Starshine a mortgage of $124,134.30 in December 2021, to be repaid with four per cent interest annually, and the company agreeing to pay property taxes and the cost of recovering payments. On March 15, 2024, the defendant went into default, Sullivan argued, and the property, which had an appraised value of $98,000, was later sold to Sullivan for $68,000.
The remaining principal to be paid amounts to $100,134.30, plus $9,344.50 in interest from March 2022 to March 2024, as well as $1,294.88 from then until the sale date in July 2024, according to the statement of claim. Minus the $68,000 from the sale, that left $42,773.68 outstanding, plus $7,742.17 in taxes and $6,275.50 in legal fees and disbursements, the statement of claim reads.
In court, Gregory, also by phone, asked why the interest was calculated from March 2022 to the breach date. Santimaw said that the defendant “paid $20,000 originally on the mortgage and then stopped,” and that since no interest was paid, they listed both the principal and interest before default instead of adding the numbers together, which he said was “confusing.”
Gregory approved damages in the amount of costs outstanding, revised to remove the legal fees from the damages and add a costs award of $2,000, as well as pre-judgement interest calculated from July 2024, to be calculated by Santimaw.
