Montréal (Ville) v. Lonardi

Montréal (Ville) v. Lonardi
Collection
Supreme Court Judgments
Date
2018-06-08
Neutral citation
2018 SCC 29
Report
[2018] 1 SCR 104
Case number
37184
Judges
McLachlin, Beverley; Karakatsanis, Andromache; Wagner, Richard; Gascon, Clément; Côté, Suzanne; Brown, Russell; Rowe, Malcolm
On appeal from
Quebec
Notes
Case in Brief
SCC Case Information
Decision Content
SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
Citation: Montréal (Ville) v. Lonardi, 2018 SCC 29, [2018] 1 S.C.R. 104
Appeal Heard: October 3, 2017 Judgment Rendered: June 8, 2018 Docket: 37184
Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Davide Lonardi, Simon Côté Béliveau,
Jonathan Franco and Jean-François Hunter
Respondents
And Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Ali Rasouli
Respondent
And Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Mohamed Moudrika, Jean-Philippe Forest Munguia
and Jonathan Beaudin Naudi
Respondents
And Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Éric Primeau, Steve Chaperon, Illiasse Iden,
Johnny Davin, Natna Nega, Nathan Bradshaw
and Maxime Favreau Courtemanche
Respondents
And Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Natna Nega
Respondent
And Between:
Ville de Montréal
Appellant
and
Benjamin Kinal, Jonathan Beaudin Naudi,
Simon Légaré and Daniel Daoust
Respondents
Official English Translation
Coram: McLachlin C.J. and Karakatsanis, Wagner, Gascon, Côté, Brown and Rowe JJ.
Reasons for Judgment: (paras. 1 to 92)
Gascon J. (McLachlin C.J. and Karakatsanis, Wagner, Brown and Rowe JJ. concurring)
Dissenting Reasons: (paras. 93 to 139)
Côté J.
Montréal (Ville) v. Lonardi, 2018 SCC 29, [2018] 1 S.C.R. 104
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Davide Lonardi,
Simon Côté Béliveau,
Jonathan Franco and
Jean‑François Hunter Respondents
‑ and ‑
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Ali Rasouli Respondent
‑ and ‑
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Mohamed Moudrika,
Jean‑Philippe Forest Munguia and
Jonathan Beaudin Naudi Respondents
‑ and ‑
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Éric Primeau,
Steve Chaperon,
Illiasse Iden,
Johnny Davin,
Natna Nega,
Nathan Bradshaw and
Maxime Favreau Courtemanche Respondents
‑ and ‑
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Natna Nega Respondent
‑ and ‑
Ville de Montréal Appellant
v.
Benjamin Kinal,
Jonathan Beaudin Naudi,
Simon Légaré and
Daniel Daoust Respondents
Indexed as: Montréal (Ville) v. Lonardi
2018 SCC 29
File No.: 37184.
2017: October 3; 2018: June 8.
Present: McLachlin C.J. and Karakatsanis, Wagner, Gascon, Côté, Brown and Rowe JJ.
on appeal from the court of appeal for quebec
Civil liability — Apportionment of liability — Damages — Solidarity — Civil action being instituted against rioters for damage done to patrol cars — Whether rioters are solidarily liable for whole of damage done to patrol car during riot because they jointly took part in wrongful act within meaning of art. 1480 of Civil Code of Québec — Whether rioters committed common fault or contributory faults as result of which they are solidarily liable under art. 1526 of Civil Code of Québec — Whether rioters are liable in solidum — Civil Code of Québec, arts. 1480, 1526.
On the night of April 21, 2008, the Montréal Canadiens were playing the Boston Bruins in the playoffs. When the Canadiens won the game and eliminated their archrivals, the jubilant crowd went out to celebrate downtown. The spontaneous gathering was initially festive, but turned into a riot as the evening progressed. Numerous acts of mischief were committed over a period of more than three hours. These included the vandalizing of 15 patrol cars belonging to the police department of Ville de Montréal (“City”). Nine of the cars were total losses; the other six required major repairs.
The police investigation, helped in particular by photographs and videos, led to the identification and arrest of a number of rioters, including about 20 people who had damaged or destroyed several of the City’s patrol cars. The City decided to institute one civil action per vehicle, with the exception of one action relating to two vehicles that had been damaged by two individuals acting in concert. In each action, it grouped together all the identified rioters who had done damage to the vehicle or vehicles in question. It sought to have the defendants in each case held solidarily liable for the whole of the damage done to the specific patrol car and to its equipment, regardless of the nature or seriousness of the wrongful act each of them had committed.
In the six cases at issue in this appeal, the Court of Québec ordered each defendant to make reparation for the specific damage caused by his own acts. It declined to find the defendants in each action solidarily liable, with the exception of two defendants who had acted together to set fire to a patrol car. It also ordered each defendant to pay punitive damages. In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal held that the facts of these cases did not support the application of arts. 1480 and 1526 of the Civil Code of Québec, which provide for solidarity in cases of extracontractual fault.
Held (Côté J. dissenting): The appeal should be dismissed.
Per McLachlin C.J. and Karakatsanis, Wagner, Gascon, Brown and Rowe JJ.: In Quebec civil law, solidarity is not presumed. In cases of extracontractual fault, solidarity exists only where it is provided for by law. Articles 1480 and 1526 of the Code set out the circumstances in which there is a solidary obligation to make reparation for injury caused by an extracontractual fault.
In the case of art. 1480 C.C.Q., two conditions must be met for it to apply. First, it must be impossible to determine which person actually caused the injury. Second, there must have been either “join[t participation] in a wrongful act which has resulted in injury” or “separate faults each of which may have caused the injury”. These two conditions that must be met for art. 1480 C.C.Q. to apply are cumulative.
The words “in either case” in art. 1480 C.C.Q. indicate that the article imposes solidarity only where it is impossible to determine who committed the fault that caused the injury and that this is true in both of the situations in which this article applies: that of joint participation in a wrongful act and that of separate faults. This is the interpretation that is most consistent with the words of the article as well as with the scheme and object of the statute and the intention of the legislature. It is consistent with the scheme of our civil liability system to interpret art. 1480 C.C.Q. such that, in every case, solidarity can be imposed only if it is impossible to identify the person who committed the fault that caused the injury. To limit this outcome to cases involving separate faults, while excluding those involving joint participation in wrongful acts from the scope of this provision, would place the provision in conflict with the central role of causation in the scheme of extracontractual liability established by the Code.
It was in the name of fairness that the legislature chose not to leave a victim without recourse where two or more persons have jointly taken part in a wrongful act or have committed separate faults and it is impossible to determine who committed the fault that actually caused the injury. Article 1480 C.C.Q. thus has the effect, where the conditions for its application are met, of shifting the burden of proof with respect to causation. But it does not justify holding a defendant liable for damage that is known not to have been caused by his or her fault on the basis that the victim cannot identify the person who caused the damage in question.
Article 1480 C.C.Q. concerns, in part, joint participation in wrongful acts. However, although the current legislative provisions governing extracontractual solidarity do codify the pre-existing case law, it would be wrong to say that all the decisions in which the term “common venture” was used would now automatically fall within the scope of art. 1480 C.C.Q. It is under art. 1526 C.C.Q., not under art. 1480 C.C.Q., that solidary liability can now be imposed on those who commit common or contributory faults where the evidence shows which person committed the fault that actually caused the injury, for which the courts formerly sometimes used the expression “common venture”.
The existence of a common intention is required for the concept of joint participation in a wrongful act in the context of the new scheme of art. 1480 C.C.Q., just as it was for the common venture concept in that of the former Code. This intention may be tacit, but at the very least, the defendant must have been aware of the acts or omissions that constituted the wrongful act and must have intended to take part in them. In determining whether there was a common intention, a court should avoid defining the wrongful act so broadly that the common intention no longer bears any relation to reality. The specific circumstances of the cases at issue in this appeal do not show that the rioters acted with a common intention, either express or tacit. There is no doubt that groups formed in the course of the riot. But the trial judge held in analyzing the evidence that this was not true where the respondents were concerned. With a few exceptions, which the judge rightly dealt with differently, the respondents did not know and were never in contact with one another, and their acts were committed at different times during the riot without the knowledge of the other respondents. These are findings of fact that are not open to review on appeal unless a palpable and overriding error was made in making them. They are valid regardless of whether the wrongful act was participation in the riot or participation in the total destruction of a vehicle.
It follows that, for two compelling reasons, the respondents cannot be found solidarily liable under art. 1480 C.C.Q. First, the trial judge found that the evidence made it possible to link each of the faults committed by the respondents to a specific injury. This finding is amply supported by the evidence that was considered in each case. Second, the faults of the respondents involved in each of the actions instituted by the City did not constitute joint participation in a wrongful act given that the respondents in question did not have a common intention.
As to art. 1526 C.C.Q., for it to apply, the fault of two or more persons must have caused a single injury. Given that the trial judge made no palpable and overriding error that would taint his finding that a single injury did not result from the rioters’ separate faults, there is no reason to intervene. The trial judge found no causal connection between each respondent’s participation in the riot and the total destruction of the patrol cars. Rather, he found that there were many distinct and identifiable injuries, each caused by a fault that was just as distinct and identifiable, and that he linked to a particular rioter. At most, the rioters’ faults contributed to the context in which the patrol cars were subsequently destroyed. While it is true that a fault that is not causally connected to the damage in question cannot ground an obligation to make reparation for the injury, it can nonetheless, as in these cases, form the basis for an award of punitive damages. However, the trial judge’s remarks in this regard cannot be taken out of context and used to contradict his clear finding that there was no causal connection between each rioter’s faults and the whole of the injury that was suffered.
Finally, neither the academic literature nor the case law includes cases in which the principles related to the obligation in solidum have been applied to faults that are, as in the instant cases, exclusively extracontractual. Unlike in cases involving separate contractual faults or faults that are both contractual and extracontractual, the solidarity of debtors who have committed extracontractual faults is governed by a complete legislative framework set out in arts. 1480 and 1526 C.C.Q. It is not appropriate to circumvent the comprehensive legislative scheme governing solidarity in cases of extracontractual fault and to seek to obtain similar effects by way of liability in solidum.
Per Côté J. (dissenting): Rioters who act together to do damage to property must be held solidarily liable for reparation of the whole of the injury suffered by the victim in respect of that property. In the circumstances, the conduct of all the individuals who took part in the destruction of a given patrol car constituted joint participation in a wrongful act. Their conduct ultimately led to the total loss of the vehicle, and these individuals are therefore solidarily liable for reparation of that injury under art. 1480 C.C.Q.
Article 1480 is new law. It codified the case law from before the Civil Code of Québec came into force. It is clear from the case law in question that it is not necessary, in order to find the rioters solidarily liable, to establish that they had a clear intention to commit mischief or had plotted to do so. When the Civil Code of Lower Canada was in force, the courts did not hesitate to impose joint and several liability on a group of persons who had acted spontaneously, but whose actions or attitudes were connected with and inseparable from the damage the victim had suffered. It is thus possible, in cases involving spontaneous acts, to find that a collective fault has been committed even though the group did not plan its actions in advance or expressly agree to them.
The riot of April 21, 2008, viewed as a whole, cannot constitute joint participation in a wrongful act, as it was an event that was too vast for there to be a sufficient nexus between the actions of all the participants. Every person who committed a fault that night could not be found solidarily liable for the whole of the damage. This does not mean that wrongful acts in which smaller groups jointly took part during the riot cannot be identified, though. But the trial judge did not decide this issue.
In these cases, small groups of individuals did in fact form during the riot. Each of those groups attacked a single patrol car until it was completely destroyed. Given the individual conduct of the persons who did damage to the same property together with the bandwagon atmosphere that resulted, there is no doubt that their actions, whose ultimate purpose was, collectively, to destroy a single patrol car, were connected. Though the acts were not identical and were not always committed at exactly the same time, they were a series of related acts that were committed in the same place within a short period of time and in relation to the same property. The persons who participated in the destruction of a given patrol car thus jointly took part in a wrongful act. Moreover, their joint participation in a wrongful act resulted in injury: the total loss of the patrol car.
It is not a matter here of questioning the trial judge’s findings that the riot as a whole was not a common venture and that there was no causal connection between the riot as a whole and the destruction of the various vehicles. However, the trial judge erred in law in defining joint participation in a wrongful act. His findings of fact lead to the conclusion that the rioters in question jointly took part in wrongful acts during the riot and that each of the acts they took part in resulted in the destruction of a patrol car. All in all, those findings were sufficient to hold the rioters in question solidarily liable for reparation of the whole of that injury, and it was therefore unnecessary to identify separate faults within this collective fault and link each one to a portion of the damage done by the group. Once a finding of solidarity has been made, art. 1478 C.C.Q. instead requires that the seriousness of the faults committed by the defendants who have been found solidarily liable be assessed in order to apportion liability among them. This means that the identification of individual faults and the determination of their nature and seriousness are relevant only to the apportionment of liability among the persons who jointly took part in the wrongful act and do not affect the question whether those persons are solidarily liable to the victim.
There are many examples of cases decided in the context of the Civil Code of Lower Canada in which the members of a group that had taken part in a common venture were held jointly and severally liable even though it had been shown on a balance of probabilities which person had actually caused the injury. Logically, the same conclusion applies even where it is possible to identify a member of the group who directly caused only a portion of the injury. This is because it is the collective fault that is agreed to be the source of the injury regardless of which person directly caused the injury. This is the very case law the legislature codified in enacting arts. 1480 and 1526 C.C.Q. There is no indication that the legislature intended to add another requirement to the concept of joint participation in a wrongful act, as defined by the courts, when it codified that concept in the Civil Code of Québec.
The legislature did not intend to make the application of art. 1480 C.C.Q. subject to the requirement that it be impossible to determine the identity of the person who caused the injury. This interpretation is consistent with the wording of the article, with the legislature’s intention to codify the earlier case law and with the scheme and object of the legislation. But even if that were the case, the requirement in question would not affect the outcome of this appeal. It would then have to be found that the combined conduct of the various rioters in question constituted a common fault, a type of fault that also leads to a finding of solidary liability, but under art. 1526 C.C.Q. instead.
Cases Cited
By Gascon J.
Distinguished: D’Allaire v. Trépanier, [1961] C.S. 619; Gagné v. Monzerolle, [1967] B.R. 899; Laxton v. Sylvestre, [1972] C.S. 297, aff’d [1975] C.A. 648; Massignani v. Veilleux, [1987] R.L. 247; Royale du Canada, Cie d’assurance v. Légaré, [1991] R.J.Q. 91; Dumont v. Desjardins, [1994] R.R.A. 459; Valois v. Giguère, 2006 QCCS 1272; Bamboukian v. Karamanoukian, 2014 QCCA 2093; Roy v. Privé, 2017 QCCS 986; considered: Assurances générales des Caisses Desjardins inc. v. Morissette, [2005] R.R.A. 1273; I.C.B.C. v. Stanley Cup Rioters, 2016 BCSC 1108; referred to: Larouche v. Simard, 2009 QCCS 529, [2009] R.J.Q. 768; Canada (Attorney General) v. Thouin, 2017 SCC 46, [2017] 2 S.C.R. 184; Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27; Doré v. Verdun (City), [1997] 2 S.C.R. 862; Simard v. Lavoie, 2005 CanLII 48674; St‑Jean v. Mercier, 2002 SCC 15, [2002] 1 S.C.R. 491; Benhaim v. St‑Germain, 2016 SCC 48, [2016] 2 S.C.R. 352; Martel v. Hôtel‑Dieu St‑Vallier, [1969] S.C.R. 745; Grand Trunk Railway Co. of Canada v. McDonald (1918), 57 S.C.R. 268; Fullowka v. Pinkerton’s of Canada Ltd., 2010 SCC 5, [2010] 1 S.C.R. 132; Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33, [2002] 2 S.C.R. 235; Quebec (Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions) v. Jodoin, 2017 SCC 26, [2017] 1 S.C.R. 478; Ontario (Attorney General) v. Bear Island Foundation, [1991] 2 S.C.R. 570; Quebec (Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse) v. Bombardier Inc. (Bombardier Aerospace Training Center), 2015 SCC 39, [2015] 2 S.C.R. 789; Hinse v. Canada (Attorney General), 2015 SCC 35, [2015] 2 S.C.R. 621; Dallaire v. Paul‑Émile Martel Inc., [1989] 2 S.C.R. 419; Montréal (Ville) v. Tarquini, [2001] R.J.Q. 1405; de Montigny v. Brossard (Succession), 2010 SCC 51, [2010] 3 S.C.R. 64; Richard v. Time Inc., 2012 SCC 8, [2012] 1 S.C.R. 265; Prévost‑Masson v. General Trust of Canada, 2001 SCC 87, [2001] 3 S.C.R. 882; Gilles E. Néron Communication Marketing Inc. v. Chambre des notaires du Québec, 2004 SCC 53, [2004] 3 S.C.R. 95; Dostie v. Sabourin, [2000] R.J.Q. 1026; Homans v. Gestion Paroi inc., 2017 QCCA 480; Solomon v. Québec (Procureur général), 2008 QCCA 1832, [2008] R.J.Q. 2127; Cinar Corp. v. Robinson, 2013 SCC 73, [2013] 3 S.C.R. 1168; 2855‑0523 Québec inc. v. Ivanhoé Cambridge inc., 2014 QCCA 124, 45 R.P.R. (5th) 64; Fonds d’assurance responsabilité professionnelle du Barreau du Québec v. Gariépy, 2005 QCCA 60, [2005] R.J.Q. 409.
By Côté J. (dissenting)
Massignani v. Veilleux, [1987] R.R.A. 541; Gagné v. Monzerolle, [1967] B.R. 899; D’Allaire v. Trépanier, [1961] C.S. 619; de Montigny v. Brossard (Succession), 2010 SCC 51, [2010] 3 S.C.R. 64; Laxton v. Sylvestre, [1972] C.S. 297, aff’d [1975] C.A. 648; Dumont v. Desjardins, [1994] R.R.A. 459; Canada (Attorney General) v. Thouin, 2017 SCC 46, [2017] 2 S.C.R. 184; Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27.
Statutes and Regulations Cited
Charter of the French Language, CQLR, c. C‑11, s. 7(3).
Civil Code of Lower Canada, art. 1106.
Civil Code of Québec, arts. 1457, 1478, 1480, 1525 para. 1, 1526, 1621, 2803, 2804, 2849.
Code of Civil Procedure, CQLR, c. C‑25.01, art. 328.
Constitution Act, 1867, s. 133 .
Interpretation Act, CQLR, c. I‑16, ss. 41, 41.1.
Authors Cited
Baudouin, Jean‑Louis, et Pierre‑Gabriel Jobin. Les obligations, 7e éd. par Pierre‑Gabriel Jobin et Nathalie Vézina. Cowansville, Que.: Yvon Blais, 2013.
Baudouin, Jean‑Louis, Patrice Deslauriers et Benoît Moore. La responsabilité civile, 8e éd. Cowansville, Que.: Yvon Blais, 2014.
Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed. by Katherine Barber. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2004, “either”.
Code civil du Québec: Annotations — Commentaires 2017‑2018, 2e éd. par Benoît Moore, dir., et autres. Montréal: Yvon Blais, 2017.
Cumyn, Michelle. “Responsibility for Another’s Debt: Suretyship, Solidarity, and Imperfect Delegation” (2010), 55 McGill L.J. 211.
Deschamps, Pierre. “Cas d’exonération et partage de responsabilité en matière extracontractuelle”, dans JurisClasseur Québec — Collection droit civil — Obligations et responsabilité civile, vol. 1, par Pierre‑Claude Lafond, dir. Montréal: LexisNexis, 2008, fascicule 22 (feuilles mobiles mises à jour septembre 2017, envoi no 17).
Deschamps, Pierre. “Faute personnelle”, dans JurisClasseur Québec — Collection droit civil — Obligations et responsabilité civile, vol. 1, par Pierre‑Claude Lafond, dir. Montréal: LexisNexis, 2008, fascicule 17 (feuilles mobiles mises à jour septembre 2017, envoi no 17).
de Villers, Marie‑Éva. Multidictionnaire de la langue française, 5e éd. Montréal: Québec Amérique, 2009, “l’un ou l’autre”, tableau “un”.
Drouin‑Barakett, Francine, et Pierre‑Gabriel Jobin. “La faute collective dans l’équipe de professionnels” (1978), 56 Can. Bar. Rev. 49.
Gage Canadian Dictionary, rev. and exp. ed. by Gaelan Dodds de Wolf et al. Vancouver: Gage Educational Publishing Company, 1997, “either”.
Grammond, Sébastien. “Un nouveau départ pour les dommages‑intérêts punitifs” (2012), 42 R.G.D. 105.
Guide to Canadian English Usage, 2nd ed. by Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2007, “either . . . or, neither . . . nor”.
Karim, Vincent. Les obligations, vol. 1, 4e éd. Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2015.
Khoury, Lara. “Lien de causalité”, dans JurisClasseur Québec — Collection droit civil — Obligations et responsabilité civile, vol. 1, par Pierre‑Claude Lafond, dir. Montréal: LexisNexis, 2008, fascicule 21 (feuilles mobiles mises à jour septembre 2017, envoi no 17).
Levesque, Frédéric. L’obligation in solidum en droit privé québécois, Cowansville, Que.: Yvon Blais, 2010.
Lluelles, Didier, et Benoît Moore. Droit des obligations, 2e éd. Montréal: Thémis, 2012.
Mayrand, Albert. “L’énigme des fautes simultanées” (1958), 18 R. du B. 1.
Quebec. Civil Code Revision Office. Committee on the Law of Obligations. Report on Obligations. Montréal: Civil Code Revision Office, 1975.
Quebec. Ministère de la Justice. Commentaires du ministre de la Justice, t. I, Le Code civil du Québec — Un mouvement de société. Québec: Publications du Québec, 1993.
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Tancelin, Maurice. Des obligations en droit mixte du Québec, 7e éd. Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2009.
Vézina, Natalie. “Cas d’exonération et partage de responsabilité en matière contractuelle”, dans JurisClasseur Québec — Collection droit civil — Obligations et responsabilité civile, vol. 1, par Pierre‑Claude Lafond, dir. Montréal: LexisNexis, 2008, fascicule 31 (feuilles mobiles mises à jour septembre 2017, envoi no 17).
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APPEAL from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal (Duval Hesler C.J. and Émond and Hogue JJ.A.), 2016 QCCA 1022, [2016] AZ‑51296257, [2016] J.Q. no 6476 (QL), 2016 CarswellQue 5327 (WL Can.), affirming the decisions of Coutlée J.C.Q., 2014 QCCQ 4916, [2014] AZ‑51084816, [2014] J.Q. no 6758 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7068 (WL Can.), 2014 QCCQ 4915, [2014] AZ‑51084815, [2014] J.Q. no 6775 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7064 (WL Can.), 2014 QCCQ 4920, [2014] AZ‑51084820, [2014] J.Q. no 6778 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7070 (WL Can.), 2014 QCCQ 4919, [2014] AZ‑51084819, [2014] J.Q. no 6777 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7067 (WL Can.), 2014 QCCQ 4902, [2014] AZ‑51084349, [2014] J.Q. no 6760 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7065 (WL Can.), 2014 QCCQ 4921, [2014] AZ‑51084821, [2014] J.Q. no 6761 (QL), 2014 CarswellQue 7066 (WL Can.). Appeal dismissed, Côté J. dissenting.
Jean‑Nicolas Legault‑Loiselle, Hugo Filiatrault and Pierre Yves Boisvert, for the appellant.
Mélany Renaud, for the respondents Davide Lonardi, Jonathan Franco and Maxime Favreau Courtemanche.
Nataly Gauvin, for the respondent Jean‑François Hunter.
Roberto T. De Minico and Ayda Abedi, for the respondent Jean‑Philippe Forest Munguia.
Louise Desautels, for the respondent Éric Primeau.
No one appeared for the respondents Simon Côté Béliveau, Ali Rasouli, Mohamed Moudrika, Jonathan Beaudin Naudi, Steve Chaperon, Illiasse Iden, Johnny Davin, Natna Nega, Nathan Bradshaw, Benjamin Kinal, Simon Légaré and Daniel Daoust.
English version of the judgment of McLachlin C.J. and Karakatsanis, Wagner, Gascon, Brown and Rowe JJ. delivered by
Gascon J. —
I. Overview
[1] This appeal illustrates the apparent conflict that sometimes exists between two core principles of extracontractual liability in Quebec civil law. The first of these principles is that of full compensation for injury. The second is the principle that, unless an exception applies, a person is liable for reparation only of injuries caused by his or her own fault.
[2] The Civil Code of Québec (“C.C.Q.” or “Code”) establishes a scheme that strikes a balance between these principles. Article 1457 of the Code provides for full compensation for injury caused by a fault. Article 1525 para. 1 provides that solidarity between debtors is not presumed. Articles 1480 and 1526 set out the circumstances in which there is a solidary obligation to make reparation for injury caused by an extracontractual fault.[1] The Code thus lays down the general principle that a person is liable only for damage he or she causes, but qualifies this principle to favour full compensation of a victim who suffers a single injury as a result of extracontractual faults committed by two or more persons. However, because solidarity represents a deviation from the general principle, it must be applied strictly (see D. Lluelles and B. Moore, Droit des obligations (2nd ed. 2012), at No. 2581).
[3] The central issue in this appeal requires the application of these principles. It may be summed up as follows: To what extent can a rioter who has caused property damage be held solidarily liable to the victim for damage done to the same property by other rioters?
[4] I agree with the Court of Appeal and the Court of Québec that the facts of these cases do not support the application of the articles of the Code that provide for solidarity in cases of extracontractual fault. The evidence is such that it is possible to determine what specific damage to the victim’s property was caused by each of the identified rioters. That being the case, this legislative scheme cannot be circumvented by imposing liability in solidum in this context either. The appeal must therefore be dismissed.
II. Facts
[5] Hockey is a tradition that is of particular significance in Montréal. Every spring when the Canadiens are in the playoffs, the city’s mood varies with the success or failure of its team. On the night of April 21, 2008, the Canadiens were playing the Boston Bruins. The rivalry between the two teams is legendary. Excitement was at a fever pitch. It was the seventh game of the series, and the teams were tied. When the Canadiens won the game and eliminated their archrivals, the jubilant crowd went out to celebrate downtown. The spontaneous gathering was initially festive, but unfortunately turned into a riot as the evening progressed. Numerous acts of mischief were committed over a period of more than three hours. These included the vandalizing of 15 patrol cars belonging to the police department of the appellant, Ville de Montréal (“City”). Nine of the cars were total losses; the other six required major repairs.
[6] The police investigation, helped in particular by photographs and videos, led to the identification and arrest of a number of rioters, including about 20 people who had damaged or destroyed several of the City’s patrol cars. The City decided to institute one civil action per vehicle, with the exception of one action relating to two vehicles that had been damaged by two individuals acting in concert. In each action, it grouped together all the identified rioters who had done damage to the vehicle or vehicles in question. It sought to have the defendants in each case held solidarily liable for the whole of the damage done to the specific patrol car and to its equipment, regardless of the nature or seriousness of the wrongful act each of them had committed.
[7] The rioters’ faults were varied and involved several different types of mischief against the vehicles, from kicking a door to arson. Some of them were committed at the start of the riot, while others were committed a few hours later. Except in a few isolated cases, the defendants acted spontaneously and independently and did not know one another.
III. Judicial History
A. Court of Québec (2014 QCCQ 4902, 2014 QCCQ 4915, 2014 QCCQ 4916, 2014 QCCQ 4919, 2014 QCCQ 4920 and 2014 QCCQ 4921 (Collectively “QCCQ”))
[8] Judge Coutlée heard all 10 of the City’s actions. In a first case, he dismissed the City’s claim for lack of evidence (2014 QCCQ 4922). In three others, he found that the defendants had committed a common fault and ordered them solidarily to pay an amount corresponding to the whole of the damage done to the patrol car or cars in question. In two of those three cases, the defendants had acted together to, among other things, set fire to a vehicle (2014 QCCQ 4917; 2014 QCCQ 4918). In the third, the two defendants had acted together to shatter the windows of two patrol cars (2014 QCCQ 4923). In all three cases, each of the defendants was also ordered to pay punitive damages.
[9] This appeal concerns the other six cases, in which the judge ordered each defendant to make reparation for the specific damage caused by his own acts. However, the judge declined to find the defendants in each action solidarily liable, with the exception of two defendants who had acted together to set fire to a patrol car. He rejected the City’s argument that the defendants had jointly taken part in a wrongful act and were therefore solidarily liable under art. 1480 C.C.Q. He found that the evidence made it possible to specifically identify each individual who had caused the various injuries at issue and that this barred the application of that article. He added that for there to be a common venture, there must be a clear intention to engage in one, whereas these cases involved spontaneous acts by individuals who, for the most part, did not know one another and had not acted simultaneously.
[10] The judge therefore identified the distinct damage caused by each fault in order to determine the fair compensation each defendant would have to pay the City. In view of the seriousness of all the wrongful acts committed during the riot, he also ordered each defendant to pay punitive damages.
B. Quebec Court of Appeal (2016 QCCA 1022)
[11] The City appealed the six judgments of the Court of Québec in which the defendants had not all been found solidarily liable. In its appeal, the City limited the issue to the application of solidarity; fault and the quantification of the injury were not raised. In a unanimous decision, the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgments.
[12] The Court of Appeal began by reiterating that solidarity is not presumed and that it may be imposed in cases of extracontractual fault only where this is provided for by law. After reviewing the principles developed by the courts in the context of the Civil Code of Lower Canada (“C.C.L.C.” or “former Code”), the Court of Appeal concluded that [translation] “the courts imposed solidarity only where a single injury had resulted from [separate] faults or where it was impossible to determine which fault had caused which injury or which portion of the injury” (para. 37 (CanLII)). In the current Code, all the legislature did was to codify the existing case law on extracontractual solidarity.
[13] Articles 1480 and 1526 C.C.Q. apply only in cases involving a single injury. The Court of Appeal stressed that Quebec’s civil liability system does not have a punitive purpose. Both the wording of art. 1480 C.C.Q. and the spirit of the system indicate that this article imposes solidarity only where it is impossible to determine which fault caused the damage.
[14] Because the evidence made it possible to link each fault to specific damage that represented only a portion of the City’s injury, the Court of Appeal upheld the trial judge’s conclusion that the defendants should not be held solidarily liable for the whole of the damage done to a given patrol car during the riot. It also dismissed the incidental appeals of certain defendants against the award of punitive damages.
IV. Issues
[15] All things considered, the City’s appeal raises three questions:
1. Are the respondents solidarily liable for the whole of the damage done to a patrol car during the riot because they jointly took part in a wrongful act within the meaning of art. 1480 C.C.Q.?
2. Did the respondents commit a common fault or contributory faults as a result of which they are solidarily liable under art. 1526 C.C.Q.?
3. Are the respondents liable in solidum?
[16] I note that the respondents did not file an incidental appeal to contest the award of punitive damages. Only the issue of solidarity was argued in this Court.
V. Analysis
[17] In Quebec civil law, solidarity is not presumed (art. 1525 para. 1 C.C.Q.; J.‑L. Baudouin and P.‑G. Jobin, Les obligations (7th ed. 2013), by P.‑G. Jobin and N. Vézina, at No. 612; M. Cumyn, “Responsibility for Another’s Debt: Suretyship, Solidarity, and Imperfect Delegation” (2010), 55 McGill L.J. 211, at p. 215). As the Court of Appeal mentioned, in cases of extracontractual fault, solidarity exists only where it is provided for by law. To succeed, the City must therefore show that the respondents’ faults come within the scope of art. 1480 or art. 1526 C.C.Q. In my view, they do not. Furthermore, the concept of liability in solidum does not apply in a situation like this one involving a number of faults that are all extracontractual. The three questions must accordingly be answered in the negative.
A. Article 1480 C.C.Q.
[18] Article 1480 C.C.Q. reads as follows:[2]
1480. Where several persons have jointly taken part in a wrongful act which has resulted in injury or have committed separate faults each of which may have caused the injury, and where it is impossible to determine, in either case, which of them actually caused it, they are solidarily liable for reparation thereof.
[19] Two conditions must be met for this article to apply. First, it must be impossible to determine which person actually caused the injury. Second, there must have been either “join[t participation] in a wrongful act which has resulted in injury” or “separate faults each of which may have caused the injury”. Neither of these conditions is met here. The solidary liability being claimed by the City on this basis has not been established.
(1) Impossibility of Determining Who Committed the Fault That Caused the Injury
[20] Article 1480 C.C.Q. imposes solidarity in two specific situations: “[w]here several persons have jointly taken part in a wrongful act which has resulted in injury” and where “several persons . . . have committed separate faults each of which may have caused the injury”.
[21] Both at trial and in the Court of Appeal, the City argued that the requirement, set out at the end of art. 1480 C.C.Q., that it be impossible to determine which of the people involved caused the injury applies only in the second situation, that is, where there are separate faults. In this Court, the City shifted the focus of its argument to the characterization of the respondents’ fault and the injury it had suffered. The two conditions that must be met for art. 1480 C.C.Q. to apply are cumulative, however. They cannot be disregarded. Therefore, even where two or more persons have jointly taken part in a wrongful act, whatever it may have been, the article will not apply if it is possible to determine who actually caused the injury.
[22] Under the modern approach to statutory interpretation, it is well established that “the words of an Act are to be read in their entire context and in their grammatical and ordinary sense harmoniously with the scheme of the Act, the object of the Act, and the intention of Parliament” (Canada (Attorney General) v. Thouin, 2017 SCC 46, [2017] 2 S.C.R. 184, at para. 26, quoting Rizzo & Rizzo Shoes Ltd. (Re), [1998] 1 S.C.R. 27, at para. 21, in turn quoting E. A. Driedger, Construction of Statutes (2nd ed. 1983), at p. 87). In addition, the Quebec legislature has provided that statutes must generally receive such fair, large and liberal construction as will ensure that they are coherent, that their provisions have meaningful effect and that their objects are attained (Interpretation Act, CQLR, c. I‑16, ss. 41 and 41.1).
[23] The judges of the courts below held that the words “dans l’un ou l’autre cas” in the French version of art. 1480 C.C.Q. (“in either case” in the English version) indicate that the article imposes solidarity only where it is impossible to determine who committed the fault that caused the injury and that this is true in both of the situations in which this article applies. I agree that this is the interpretation that is most consistent with the words of the article as well as with the scheme and object of the statute and the intention of the legislature.
(a) Wording of Article 1480 C.C.Q.
[24] The issue of interpretation that arises with respect to the words of art. 1480 C.C.Q. is whether the phrase “dans l’un ou l’autre cas” in the French version refers to both the concept of joint participation in a wrongful act (“fait collectif fautif”) and that of separate faults (“fautes distinctes”), or only to the concept of separate faults.
[25] The first proposition reflects the most natural reading of the French version of the article. However, from a grammatical standpoint, the French wording may leave some room for doubt. According to the Office québécois de la langue française, the phrase “l’un ou l’autre” indicates [translation] “a choice between two