A driver who drove over wet paint on a Richmond street has failed to make the city pay $400 to fix the damages.
Alison Cockburn took the City of Richmond to the Civil Resolution Tribunal (CRT) after she drove over wet white paint near Granville and Railway avenues in April.
Cockburn claimed the city was responsible because “the paint was all over the road and there were no warnings posted about it,” reads the CRT decision issued Wednesday.
According to an estimate from the auto shop, it would cost around $400 to remove paint from the car including the from right tires and wheel wells.
David Jiang, tribunal member, rejected Cockburn’s claim, concluding the city doesn’t owe her a duty of care because its actions were based on a policy decision.
He agreed with the City of Richmond that its policy to use a “complaints-based system” for maintaining roads was not “irrational, unreasonable, or otherwise made in bad faith.”
For spills such as the one Cockburn encountered, the city would either be notified by Richmond RCMP, the Fire Department or by citizens.
A city employee testified the policy is complaints-based because “hazards like spills are sporadic (and) unpredictable.”
The Public Works Department’s staff time and budgetary resources are “used to (respond) to possible emergency issues and focus on conducting repairs rather than proactive inspections for emergency issues,” explained the employee.
The CRT accepted the employee’s explanation that the city wasn’t aware of the paint spill until it received Cockburn’s subsequent complaint. Documents submitted by the city also showed it did not paint lines in the area during the time of the incident.
It also found no indication that the city “ignored any complaints or that it caused the paint spill through any action or inaction.”
