Lawsuits unfairly target municipalities (continued)

governments. Muncipalities across Ontario – including Windsor-Essex – are facing skyrocketing insurance premiums because of the increased lawsuits they face over injuries that occurred on public property. The County of Essex this year had an almost 50 per cent increase, the Town of Kingsville is facing 35 per cent. The City of Windsor is projecting claims of $1.6 million next year. No one is suggesting municipalities shouldn’t be held responsible where there is true negligence. A child suffering a brain injury from falling off a defective swing is an example. But when litigants are bringing claims as part of wider actions – often for dubious merits – this crosses the line from real negligence to exploiting a party simply because it has the ability to pay. The idea of “joint and several” responsibility means that even if a city is found to be a fraction responsible for an injury it can end up paying the lion’s share of costs. Moreover, how responsible is it to bring a municipality to court over claims of a cracked sidewalk, when the municipality might have thousands of kilometres of sidewalks and streets to maintain, often on limited budgets? Two current Windsor lawsuits are cases in point: one, for almost $13 million, was brought for a teenager paralyzed after being struck a stolen vehicle. The city’s role? It should have had a sidewalk on the side of the street where the injury occurred. Another is an almost $20 million claim for when a woman and boy were struck by a vehicle that lost control and slammed into a planter, injuring them and the boy apparently suffering permanent brain damage. Municipalities are easy targets. Why? Because, in a word, they have the bucks. And where do they get those bucks from? The taxpayers. The next time a lawyer stands on his moral high ground and lectures a city about inadequate infrastructure and thereby creating very dangerous conditions for all concerned he should ask himself: how moral is it to exploit a party that may have almost no role in an injury, sucking that municipality dry because its funds are seemingly bottomless? These, sir, are what we call moral damages.

WindsorOntarioNews.com Dec 22, 2009