City of Abbotsford not liable for damage caused by tree falling on resident's trampoline: CRT
If a tree falls on your trampoline and you didn't complain to the City of Abbotsford about it beforehand, is the city still liable?
It's not an abstract question of philosophy, but the central question asked and answered in a case recently decided before B.C.'s Civil Resolution Tribunal.
The answer, according to tribunal vice chair Eric Regehr, is no. The city is not liable.
Homeowner John Camarda took the city to the CRT seeking the maximum of $5,000 in compensation for the cost of repairing a fence and replacing a trampoline that were damaged when a tree fell on his property in November 2022.
According to Regehr's decision, which was posted online Tuesday, there was no dispute that the tree fell, nor that it was owned by the city.
Camarda did not specify the legal basis for his claim in his CRT application, but the city submitted – and Regehr agreed – that the two possible grounds for Camarda's claim were negligence and nuisance.
In response to the negligence allegation, Abbotsford invoked a legal concept known as the "policy defence."
"The policy defence essentially says that governments cannot be held liable in negligence for 'core policy decisions' because they do not owe a duty of care to citizens for policy decisions," Regehr's decision reads.
"The reason this principle exists is that governments must make difficult public policy choices, and it is not the court’s (or the CRT’s) job to judge those choices. Instead, voters judge government policy choices through elections."
The city told the tribunal it has a primarily "reactive" tree management policy, which it was applying when it failed to proactively remove the tree that ultimately fell on Camarda's property.
Abbotsford has hundreds of thousands of trees, and it only actively monitors about 13,000 of them, generally because of past incidents or identified risks, neither of which were present in the case of the tree that fell on Camarda's property, according to the decision.
Regehr accepted that the city's decision not to monitor every tree it owns was a core policy decision.
"The policy is based on budgetary constraints, and high-level employees set the budget through a deliberative process," the decision reads.
"This means Abbotsford owed the applicant no duty of care. Abbotsford can only be liable for a policy decision if the policy itself was irrational or made in bad faith. There is no evidence that any of this is the case. There is also no evidence that Abbotsford failed to properly implement the policy in its handling of the tree. I therefore find that Abbotsford is not liable in negligence for the fallen tree."
Similarly, though a party does not have to owe a duty of care in order to be held liable for nuisance, Regehr found there was no basis for the nuisance allegation either.
To prove nuisance, Camarda would have had to show that the city either knew or ought to have known that the tree was likely to fall, according to the decision.
"There is no evidence here that anyone had complained about the tree or that there had been previous trees falling in the area," the decision reads. "So, Abbotsford did not know and had no reason to know that the tree might fall. This means Abbotsford is not liable in nuisance."
Accordingly, the tribunal member dismissed Camarda's claim. Regehr made note, however, that there was nothing stopping Camarda from bringing a new claim against Abbotsford regarding any damage caused by a second tree that fell in November 2023.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'Some structural damage' from wildfire near Fort Nelson, B.C., mayor confirms
More than one home has been damaged or lost due to a massive wildfire outside of the B.C. community of Fort Nelson, the mayor confirmed Wednesday.
'Very expensive lunch': Sask. driver says he got a cellphone ticket for using his points app in the drive-thru
A warning from a Saskatoon driver about using your fast-food app while in the drive-thru line — a trip to get some free lunch cost him a lot more than he bargained for.
B.C. YouTuber ordered to pay $350K for 'relentless' online defamation campaign
An 'unrepentant' YouTuber has been ordered to pay $350,000 in damages as compensation for a 'relentless' campaign of defamation waged online against a business owner and his company, the B.C. Supreme Court has ruled.
Chief says grave search at B.C. residential school brings things 'full circle'
Chief Robert Michell says relief isn't the right word to describe his reaction as the search begins for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school he attended in northern British Columbia.
'Endless Shrimp' just one misstep for Red Lobster as it eyes bankruptcy protection
While it's unclear what these closures might mean for the 27 restaurants in Canada, Red Lobster is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. this month.
B.C. man shot sex worker in the back during drug-fuelled birthday, court hears
A man from B.C.'s Lower Mainland has been sentenced to four years behind bars after shooting a sex worker in the back during a drug-fuelled 43rd birthday.
'Inhumane conditions': 68 dogs pulled from Winnipeg home
Nearly six dozen dogs were seized from a home Wednesday morning by the Winnipeg Humane Society. It is the largest known seizure of animals in the city’s history.
Ontario's 'Crypto King' Aiden Pleterski arrested
Of the $40-million Aiden Pleterski was handed over two years, documents show he invested just over one per cent and instead spent $15.9 million on "his personal lifestyle." The 25-year-old Oshawa, Ont. man was arrested and charged with fraud and money laundering on Tuesday.
Driver said he smoked pot oil, took medication before Florida crash that killed 8 Mexican workers
A man with a long record of dangerous driving told investigators he smoked marijuana oil and took prescription drugs hours before he sideswiped a bus, killing eight Mexican farmworkers and injuring dozens more, according to an arrest report unsealed Wednesday.