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Successful public transit authority denied costs against injured child plaintiff due to public interest considerations.
Following a trial where the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) was found not liable for a streetcar accident involving a four-year-old child, the TTC sought its costs of the proceeding.
The court declined to award costs to the TTC, noting that the child could not be at fault and that the TTC, as a public service, should bear the costs of defending such claims where the injured party is not at fault.
The court also declined to award costs for the TTC's counterclaim against the child's parents, resulting in no order as to costs for any party.
Action dismissed; TTC rebutted reverse onus by proving streetcar collision with child pedestrian was unavoidable.
A four-year-old boy ran across a street mid-block and was struck by a TTC streetcar.
The plaintiffs sued the TTC and the streetcar operator for negligence.
Under s. 193(1) of the Highway Traffic Act, the defendants bore the onus of proving they were not negligent.
After hearing extensive expert evidence on accident reconstruction, perception-reaction times, and streetcar braking mechanics, the court concluded that the child ran into the streetcar's path too late for the operator to avoid the collision.
The defendants successfully rebutted the presumption of negligence, and the action was dismissed.
