A Fonthill man is concerned that snow-covered sidewalks are leaving the Town open to legal action in the event someone is injured as the result of a fall. Stefanos Karatopis said snow from a neighbouring property to his home on Station Street is being dumped on Town property – the sidewalk – and he wants the Town to do something about it. He said he has called the bylaw department about the situation but an officer who came to see the situation did nothing.
“I watched him right on my security cameras. He just came along, slowed down, and then just kept going,” Karatopis said, describing bylaw’s looking into the matter as “a negligent investigation.”
As a result, the potential problems for the Town stemming from situations like the one he documented are many, he said.
“There's vicarious liability because they never took any action,” said Karatopis, who graduated from the paralegal program at Algonquin College. “I brought up the constitutional issue. When the Town is doing construction, they can't stop their vehicles in front of (your) driveway … no emergency vehicles can get in and you can't get out. So, you have your mobility rights being infringed on at that point.”
But Pelham Chief Administrative Officer David Cribbs, who has done legal work in other Ontario municipalities, said it’s not cut and dried.
“I used to defend these cases for a living in the junior part of my career,” Cribbs said. “I did this work in-house for the City of London and I was there for just under nine years. For about four years, I defended slip and falls and trip and falls on municipal sidewalks and crosswalks and streets.”
Cribbs said the Town is bound by Section 239/02 of the Municipal Act to meet minimum maintenance standards. In the case of sidewalks, that means reducing the depth of snow on a sidewalk to less than eight centimetres within 48 hours of a snowfall.
“They establish to what degree we have to plow, salt (and) sand sidewalks and roadways,” Cribbs said. “So, when they're triggered, we have no choice, but the Town tries to exceed the minimum. The purpose of the regulation is to provide a liability shield.”
The purpose of the regulation is to provide a liability shield
He did admit, though, that property owners should not be dumping snow accumulation on public lands.
While the Town owns six plows and three tractors, they are all for clearing roads. Sidewalk plowing is contracted out “and always has been,” Cribbs said.
“So we just keep sending them out until everything's done.”
The goal is to make getting around safe and easy.
“The real answer is, we don't stop spending public resources until we can finally make things as safe as possible.”
Cribbs added that private properties are not supposed to be dumping their snow accumulation on public lands.
But as far as Karatopis is concerned, the Town needs to come up with a bylaw that would prevent snow from private property being plowed onto land owned by the municipality and enforce it.
“If everybody pushes all of their snow out onto the side of the road, where's the snow going to go that the Town's going to take off the road?” he asked. “That's just going to add to it, and then that's going to bury people even more into their driveway.”
And despite Cribbs’ assertions, Karatopis said the Town could still face legal action if someone falls and is hurt.
“Regardless of what the Town says is a defense, they’re still going to be liable, partially.”