Ottawa's $7,064 pothole: A motorist claims extensive damage from Montreal Road monster

A local lawyer sought a damage award from the City of Ottawa to cover the repair bill for her Audi SQ5.

Published Oct 25, 2023 • 3 minute read

OTTAWA. OCTOBER 24, 2023 #139599. Montreal Road, around the highway 174 overpass, where a new LRT station is still being built, is under construction in many parts. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /Postmedia

One Ottawa pothole created a whole lot of trouble this year.

The pothole, on Montreal Road beneath Highway 174, was the subject of two small claims court cases totalling more than $40,000.

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In one case, Ottawa motorist Peggy Gibson said she hit the pothole while driving her Audi SUV at 6:30 p.m. on the dark evening of Feb. 15. The stretch of Montreal Road, beneath the highway, was then part of a road detour necessitated by ongoing construction of the city’s Stage 2 light-rail project.

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In her statement of claim, filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Gibson said her vehicle could not be driven after the monster pothole swallowed it since a front and rear tire were destroyed. The SUV had to be loaded onto a flatbed tow truck ($75.00) and taken to the Audi dealership.

Her 2017 Audi SQ5 spent a week in the shop. It required the installation of four new tires ($2,259.91), a new front wheel bearing ($731.29), two front lower straight arm bushings ($959.32) and two rear suspension shocks ($1,433.02).

By the time taxes ($406.07) and four hours of lost work time ($1,200) were added to the bill, the total cost of repairs came to $7,064.61, according to the statement of claim filed by Gibson, an urban and environmental planner with the law firm Gibsons LLP.

Gibson’s small claims lawsuit sought a damage award from the City of Ottawa to cover the repair bill.

“The defendant negligently failed to exercise reasonable care while performing public work to Montreal Road,” the claim reads. “The defendant did not install barricades, lighting or signs to warn the plaintiff of the dangerously large pothole, which caused undue property damage to the vehicle.”

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Months later, while denying any wrongdoing in Gibson’s case, the city launched a $35,000 defendant’s claim against the construction consortium building Stage 2 of the LRT, the Kiewit Eurovia Vinci Corporation (KEV), in connection with the same pothole.

In its claim, the city argued that the construction group was responsible for any work carried out near Montreal Road, beneath Highway 174, and that any damages Gibson may have suffered were “directly attributable to the negligence, want of care, and breach of contract of KEV and its subcontractors.”

In its statement of defence, filed in September, KEV denied any negligence on its part and maintained the city was responsible for Montreal Road.

KEV called the damages sought by the city “grossly excessive, exaggerated, inflated, too remote, and not commensurate with any losses, damages or expenses, if any, sustained by the plaintiff.”

Michael Dobbin, a lawyer at Gibsons LLP, said Peggy Gibson’s claim was recently settled out of court. Terms of the settlement, he said, are confidential and cannot be discussed.

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Gibson did not return requests for comment.

Ottawa’s freeze-thaw cycle leads each year to a plague of potholes. Ontario’s Municipal Act sets out the rules that govern the city’s liability for damage claims resulting from them.

Essentially, the law requires that the city maintain a minimum repair standard and fix a pothole within four to 30 days, depending on its size and location. The clock starts ticking only after the city is made aware of the problem.

According to the City of Ottawa, it receives hundreds of pothole damage claims each season, the majority of which are denied based on the province’s minimum maintenance standard. That standard, it notes, is reasonableness, not perfection.