Man tries to sue Vancouver Starbucks over fall where he fractured his skull
A man alleges he suffered a significant brain injury and skull fracture after he fell inside a South Granville Starbucks five years ago and tried to sue the cafe after it declined to release video footage of the incident.
The case was heard by a BC Supreme Court judge recently, who released his written decision on the video footage this week.
The man fell in the customer seating area on October 19, 2019. The fall was significant, with paramedics and firefighters responding to the scene.
“Fire department personnel described him as ‘babbling, yelling and unable to answer questions,'” the judge wrote in the decision.
The man was taken to Vancouver General Hospital, where he underwent surgery to relieve pressure from the bleeding in his brain. He stayed in a rehabilitation facility for several months and said he was unable to return to his previous work as an accountant. He has no memory of the incident.
In the weeks after the incident, the man’s wife phoned the cafe, asking for footage to be released so doctors and her husband could better understand what happened. The restaurant declined.
Then the couple retained a lawyer. The footage still wasn’t released.
By the time the case got to the Supreme Court judge, footage of the incident had been deleted. Starbucks writes over its security footage every 90 days.
Starbucks is also supposed to create incident reports after injuries at the store, but the court proceeding revealed the restaurant didn’t follow its own procedures in the hours and days after the man’s fall.
Starbucks only gathered employee statements in April 2020, six months after the fall.
The man wanted the video footage and accounts of the fall to be released since he has no memory of the incident, thus creating uneven footing for potential litigation.
But the judge found that several of Starbucks’ documents were created after the restaurant received a letter from the couple’s lawyer warning them of impending litigation. Therefore, he found several of the documents about the incident were protected by litigation privilege and didn’t need to be produced to the other side.
Also, the judge found the restaurant wasn’t obligated to produce the video footage because it never received the appropriate warrant. As well, the judge found on the balance of probabilities staff likely didn’t destroy evidence after the incident.
In the end, the injured man was made to pay Starbucks’ legal costs for this part of the proceeding.