7-Eleven ordered to pay B.C. woman $907K for pothole injury

The exterior of a 7-Eleven store is shown in an undated file photo.

A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ordered 7-Eleven Canada to pay a woman more than $900,000 in damages after she tripped on a pothole and broke her ankle in the parking lot of a convenience store.

Crystal Tommy's fall in May of 2018 led to a cascading series of injuries from which she is yet to fully recover, according to the decision of B.C. Supreme Court Justice Emily Burke.

The judge heard that Tommy stopped to get a coffee at the 7-Eleven in Smithers before work. As she left the store that morning, she tripped on a divot in the park lot and broke her ankle in three places.

The injury forced the woman, who is now 37 years old, to miss several months of work at a local plant nursery while she used crutches and a wheelchair.

Injuries continue

By December of that year, she was walking again, albeit with a limp and pain in her hip. But on Christmas Day 2018, she fell down a set of stairs and injured her back.

While she testified that there was fresh snow on the stairs where she fell, she argued it was her lingering limp and hip pain that caused the fall.

Tommy's medical complications continued in 2021, when she was driving her dog to the veterinarian and her vehicle slid on some black ice. The car came to a violent stop in the ditch.

Tommy testified that she had gained weight around her stomach due to her inactivity after the 2018 fall.

"Her stomach hit the steering wheel, leading to a hernia," the judge wrote in her decision last week. "This required an operation in 2023. In addition, she had another surgery in 2023 to deal with an ovarian cyst, all of which created healing complications."

Depression, financial struggles

By the end of 2022, Tommy had stopped working and had lost many of her social connections, leading to deteriorating mental health and financial struggles, according to the ruling.

"Tommy continues to experience a limp, pain in her ankle and mobility issues," the judge found, noting friends and family corroborated the change in Tommy's personality since 2018 "from a happy person to one who is sad and depressed."

Her lawsuit against 7-Elevent Canada claimed damages and lost future earnings arguing she will not he healed enough to return to work until the spring of 2026, and will likely need to retire by age 50, losing out on an estimated 20 years of income.

7-Eleven denies liability

7-Eleven Canada denied all liability for Tommy's injuries, arguing photos showed the parking lot was reasonably safe with only a very small depression in the pavement.

Evidence showed the store manager filled in the pothole on the day Tommy was injured, according to the ruling.

A 7-Eleven asset protection supervisor testified that its B.C. store employees were required to take an online safety course and complete a questionnaire about workplace hazards when they were hired. Since Tommy's injury, employee safety training is now requested annually, according to her testimony.

"The evidence is that while employees are now 'asked' to undertake the course annually, at the time of the accident, this was not the case," the judge found.

"An employee could be asked to take the online course, without consequence for non-compliance. Furthermore, the employee is only asked to answer five multiple choice questions as part of a 'knowledge check' at the end of the course, which appears to be a somewhat limited method to ascertain whether an employee has some understanding of the safety issues in the workplace."

The judge ordered 7-Eleven Canada to pay Tommy $907, 363 for her claim, including $175,000 in non-pecuniary damages, $494,000 in future loss of income, $10,000 in past loss of income, $171,863 in future loss of housekeeping, $39,000 in past loss of housekeeping, $17,000 in future cost of care and $500 in special damages.