Supreme Court of Canada agrees to hear case of a rotten tree killing a young man seated in a parked car

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Ville de Westmount c. Richard Rossy et autres.
Gabriel Rossy was killed in 2006 when a rotten tree fell on top of the parked car in which he was seated.
The Rossy family attempted to sue the City of Westmount for $1.3 million, arguing the city had failed to maintain the tree, which it owned, and that it was liable on that basis.
Lloyd’s of London, the city’s insurer, moved to dismiss the action, arguing an automobile had caused the damage. Since an automobile was involved, the insurer argued, no fault compensation was available under the Automobile Insurance Act and responsibility for payment therefore fell to the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec.
The Superior Court dismissed the Rossy family’s action, noting that no fault benefits were available under the Automobile Insurance Act.
But the Court of Appeal overturned this finding, saying the death was causally connected to the tree falling, not to Rossy’s sitting in the car when it happened.
The fact that Rossy was sitting in an automobile when the tree fell was not connected to his death, the Appeal Court ruled, arguing the tree might well have killed him if he had been walking along the sidewalk, outside of the car.
Lloyd’s of London sought leave to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“Lloyd’s of London is of the view that the Court of Appeal failed to apply the proper causality test and that the Automobile Insurance Act must be given a wide and generous interpretation in order to ensure that victims of car accidents be compensated without having to hire lawyers to sue potentially insolvent wrongdoers,” Lloyd’s wrote in a January 2011 press release.