The City of Montreal has received 108 claims from pedestrians injured in a fall on ice since the beginning of the cold season, exceeding the number of complaints filed in the last two years during the same period.
To obtain compensation, a complainant must prove the city was negligent in the maintenance of the street or sidewalk where the incident occurred.
Claims are often dismissed by the courts as case law and the Cities and Towns Act state that municipalities have “obligations of means but not results” and are not held to a standard of perfection.
At the end of January, the Montreal municipal government admitted it had been too late to declare a snow removal operation, relying on a possible thaw to melt the snow and ice. This admission could possibly be used to bolster some cases.
