Allen / McMillan Granted Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada

On August 20th, 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the City of Nelson’s application for leave to appeal in the case of City of Nelson v. Taryn Joy Marchi. The application for leave to appeal was prepared by AMLC’s Greg Allen and Liam Babbitt.

Obtaining leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada is a difficult process and only 10-15% of applications for leave to appeal are successful. AMLC’s application in this case was just the 26th successful leave application of 2020.

The case involves relatively straightforward, albeit uniquely Canadian, facts. Ms. Marchi had parked her car along a snowbank in the City of Nelson and had attempted to traverse over the snowbank to get to the sidewalk on the other side. While doing so, her foot fell through the snowbank, severely injuring her leg. Ms. Marchi commenced the underlying action against the City of Nelson, alleging the City had been negligent in leaving snowbanks along the road with no space for pedestrians to cross.

The City of Nelson was successful in defending the claim at trial, but the Court of Appeal overturned the trial decision and ordered that a new trial take place. At the Supreme Court of Canada, AMLC will argue that the City’s snow clearance operations prior to Ms. Marchi’s injury were carried out pursuant to a bona fide policy, and therefore the City should be immune from liability in negligence.

This appeal will mark AMLC’s fourth appearance at the Supreme Court of Canada since the firm opened in June 2018.