Trip & Fall Claim Dismissed

In Ali v. Smart REIT, the plaintiff tripped on a curb in a shopping plaza and fell on her face.

The curb had a slope for barrier-free access. The plaintiff argued that the curb was hazardous because the slope was not gradual and because there was no warning as to where the slope started and ended.

Justice Copeland disagreed that the curb was hazardous. She stated that the curb looked like any ordinary curb in the Greater Toronto Area.

Justice Copeland accepted the evidence of the defendant’s engineering expert who stated that the curb was not unusually high or low, that it was in a good state of repair, and that it did not need to be painted yellow.

In dismissing the plaintiff’s claim, Justice Copeland noted that there are risks involved in almost all of the activities that ordinary people engage in every day. She stated: “sometimes, as in this case, people fall in the absence of any wrongdoing on the part of another. It is unfortunate, but it happens.”