No badminton for you: Surrey sues resident for painting court on road

The City of Surrey sued a man for painting lines on a road for a badminton court.

In a small claims case between the City and Lian Gong Tu, Surrey claimed $1,623.33 in damages.

Tu suggested he wasn’t the only person who painted the road and said he wasn’t responsible for reimbursing Surrey for the badminton court he attempted to create.

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While the entire focus of the case was the badminton lines that Tu painted on the Surrey road, there had also been lines painted beforehand for pickleball that Tu had nothing to do with.

The pickleball lines were the main reason that Tu felt it acceptable to paint some adjacent lines for badminton.

The area in question is a cul-de-sac which tribunal documents suggest was “within Surrey’s municipal boundaries, and it is owned and maintained by Surrey.”

It is undisputed that Tu painted the lines without permission or consent from Surrey.

Surrey provided an affidavit from someone the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal referred to as EH. EH had apparently witnessed Tu painting the badminton court lines.

The $1,623.33 that Surrey claimed for costs to remove the painted lines actually included the pickleball lines that Tu had nothing to do with.

For that reason, the court found that Tu was only responsible for $874.17, which included the damages for paint removal costs and $62.50 in CRT fees.

Do you think this was worth the City of Surrey’s time and effort?