It took almost three years, but Jocelyne Courval finally proved that the City of Laval\u2019s negligent snow-clearing contributed to her fall three years ago, when she broke her ankle. A judge from the Quebec Superior Court ordered the city to write Courval a cheque for $45,651.54 as of December 6.<\/p>\n
The case dates from the morning of February 26, 2009, when Courval fell while rushing for a bus at the intersection of Croissant de Calli\u00e8res and boulevard de la Concorde. Courval claimed that the City of Laval was responsible for the fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easier to prove someone\u2019s negligence in their driveway than to prove that a city is responsible, because a city only has to show that they took reasonable measures to secure people,\u201d said Courval\u2019s lawyer, M\u00e9lany Renaud from T\u00e9treault Bri\u00e8re Renaud Markarian. \u201cConsidering how bad the sidewalk was that day, it seemed obvious to me that the city was negligent. It wasn\u2019t just a little icy spot that might have been missed. There was no freezing rain. There was nothing unusual happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evidence showed that the sidewalk on which Courval fell hadn\u2019t been cleared, sanded or salted in the three days prior to the incident. In his judgment, Quebec Superior Court Justice Louis J. Gouin expressed shock that the City of Laval didn\u2019t prioritize sidewalks on de la Concorde for snow-clearing.<\/p>\n
He also said that Courval should have stayed on the road, which wasn\u2019t as slippery as the sidewalk. He judged that the two parties shared equal blame for what happened. The amount now due to Courval covers 50% of her losses with interest and indemnity plus her legal and expert costs. Interest accumulates daily.<\/p>\n
Laval has 30 days to appeal the judgement, but Renaud hopes they improve snow-clearing efforts on the de la Concorde sidewalks instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir own witness testified that it\u2019s the most important street in Laval,\u201d she said \u201cThat\u2019s the sidewalk where the most people walk every day. It\u2019s in front of a bus stop and next to a McDonald\u2019s. There was at least 132 feet of plain ice, maybe more. The reason that this sidewalk was the way it was on that day is because there is only one supervisor in Laval in this section. They do that on top of overlooking the work that they give to their employees. It is not sufficient. That\u2019s not taking appropriate measures to secure people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Note: This article appeared in the Suburban’s North and East version on December 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It took almost three years, but Jocelyne Courval finally proved that the City of Laval\u2019s negligent snow-clearing contributed to her fall three years ago, when she broke her ankle. A judge from the Quebec Superior Court ordered the city to write Courval a cheque for $45,651.54 as of December 6. The case dates from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hundredmilecircle","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-lN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16404,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-refuses-anthian-expenses\/","url_meta":{"origin":1351,"position":0},"title":"Laval bureaucrats refuse Anthian expenses","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Laval-des-rapides councillor Pierre Anthian had another meeting with legal department manager Patrice F. Guay recently. Guay and Sylvain\u00a0Gouin, who became Laval\u2019s financial services manager and city municipal treasurer in January, had bad news. Laval will not pay $12,000 of $14,000 Anthian claimed in research and support expenses since he became\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1250,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-postpones-public-work\/","url_meta":{"origin":1351,"position":1},"title":"Laval Postpones Assigning Road, Sewage and Water Contracts until Provincial Anti-corruption Law In Place","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At their regular council meeting on November 5, the City of Laval decided to postpone assigned road, sewage or aquaduct public work contracts until after the province passes its anti-corruption bill. 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In the audience were several people representing 700 people whose homes lie within the official flood plain if changes aren\u2019t made. They waited four hours to hear about more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hundred Mile Circle"","block_context":{"text":"Hundred Mile Circle","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/hundredmilecircle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/laval-city-council-in-turmoil\/","url_meta":{"origin":1351,"position":4},"title":"Laval City Council in Turmoil","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The goings on in Laval City Council have been hard to follow. The Latest: A\u00a0race to become mayor will happen after all. The Gazette and the CBC\u00a0has reported that Alexandre Duplessis and Jacques St-Jean will compete for mayor. 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