BC woman sues after she slipped in snowy hospital parking lot
A woman in BC filed a lawsuit against the Fraser Health Authority and snow clearing contractor after she slipped and fell in a parking lot. However, the health authority and contractor have attempted to dismiss her claim through the BC Supreme Court.
Hailey Harrison drove her friend and their child to the Chilliwack General Hospital on February 13, 2019.
After she parked in a lot near the Health Services Building entrance, she got out of her vehicle to help her friend’s son out of the rear passenger-side door and slipped.
According to the BC Supreme Court documents, Harrison landed “with all her weight” on her left ankle.
Harrison’s friend and a Fraser Health worker helped her into her car, and she was driven a short distance to the hospital emergency room.
Harrison claims Fraser Health Authority, which operates the hospital and JD’s Excavating Ltd, which the hospital hired as its snow-clearing contractor, were negligent because they failed to clear and de-ice the parking lot adequately.
The defendants argue it met the “standard of care owed” to Harrison because the hospital had a “reasonable” snow-clearing program, which JD’s Excavating followed.
Harrison said that although it was a clear day when she fell, there were about two inches of snow on the ground. Honourable Mr. Justice F. Matthew Kirchner said this estimate depends on whether Harrison’s recollection is accurate.
Harrison and the defendants could not agree on when it last snowed. She claimed it snowed the night before the incident, but the defendants claimed it snowed throughout the day on February 13. The owner of JD’s Excavating, Jason Hall, recalled a five-day storm with snow starting and stopping. There is no historical weather data available for Chilliwack.
However, the judge said that “the amount of snow-clearing equipment deployed to the hospital campus that day and the volume of salt that was used suggest that snow fell that day.”
Hall said his crew was on the hospital site as soon as snow fell. A part of the contract between the hospital and JD’s is that there is a “priority” list of areas which are top priority for snow clearing. The lot Harrison slipped in was not on this list. In fact, the lot was “the lowest priority and the last to be cleared,” according to Hall.
Despite not being of top priority, Hall said the lot Harrison fell in has always been plowed and salted or sanded by his crew before 8 am during a snow event. However, it was difficult to plow the lot after that because it filled up with cars.
“Once that parking lot was full it was difficult to get a piece of snow removal equipment into the lot and there was a risk of damage to the cars, so the only equipment used after 8 am was a small loader that could clear the drive lane areas.”
Harrison said she fell between 10 am and 12 pm. Hospital records show she attended the emergency department at 12:20.
While a smaller loader was operating at the hospital, Hall could not say if it had gone into Lot 10 to clear out snow between 8 am and 12 pm.
Harrison claims the defendants are liable for allowing snow and ice to accumulate in Lot 10, where they knew or ought to have known pedestrians would be walking.
In regards to dismissing Harrison’s claims, Kitchener explained that it would be necessary for the court to consider the context of a winter snowstorm and determine whether the winter maintenance system in place was reasonable to protect people entering the hospital on February 19, 2019.
Since “there are material issues of fact that cannot be resolved without a trial,” Harrison argued the case is not suitable for a summary trial disposition, according to court documents.
However, the defendants said, “Any factual disputes are not of a nature that require a trial for resolution.”
While the judge said the FHA and JD’s Excavating “led persuasive evidence,” he concluded that he was “not able to make the necessary findings of fact to decide this case on a summary basis, largely because there is a conflict in the evidence I cannot resolve as to what, if any, snow clearing was done on Lot 10 (Harrison was injured on) that day.”
Kirchner concluded that he could not decide the issue of liability on the summary trial application, and the application was dismissed.
Harrison was awarded the costs of this application in the cause.
None of these claims have been proven in court.