7-Eleven ordered to pay B.C. woman $907K after pothole injury
CBC
Crystal Tommy stopped to get a coffee at a 7-Eleven in Smithers, B.C., one early spring morning in 2018.
As she walked across the the convenience store's parking lot she tripped on a pothole, twisting her ankle and breaking it in three places — leading to years of health issues, according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision.
That decision ordered 7-Eleven Canada to pay Tommy, 37, about $907,000 in damages, with a judge finding the company liable for causing her injuries and the consequences of those injuries.
"Ms. Tommy is likely my bravest client," her lawyer Tyler Dennis wrote in a statement to CBC News. "This decision reinforces the principle that corporations, including major retailers like 7-Eleven, must be diligent in maintaining safe premises."
7-Eleven has denied liability for the incident and disputed Tommy's claims for damages. The company and its lawyer did not respond to requests for comment from CBC News.
Before the incident, Tommy had an active lifestyle and worked at a plant nursery, a physically demanding job that required lifting, planting and organizing 20 to 50 pounds of seedling trees for reforestation projects, according to B.C. Supreme Court Justice Emily Burke.
The ruling said on the morning the incident occurred, Tommy and her co-workers stopped in at 7-Eleven on their way to work in Smithers, a town about 670 kilometres north of Vancouver.
After her fall, Tommy was taken to hospital where her foot was placed in a cast, before she began using an air boot for several weeks.
But when the air boot was removed her ankle was swollen and she was unable to return to normal activity for months after the incident, according to Burke.
Tommy missed several months from work but returned in late 2018, according to the ruling.
But on Christmas Day that year she had another fall, it said: After Christmas dinner at her mother's home, Tommy slipped down the outside stairs of the home and hit her back on the corner of the porch.
White Tommy testified that there was fresh snow, she said she was still limping from her earlier injury and her hips had become painful, which made it difficult to walk. Tommy said the pain started in the two to three months after her ankle injury.
Then in 2021, Tommy was in a car accident, according to the ruling.
As she was driving one of her dogs to the vet, her vehicle slipped on black ice. She lost control and the car went into a ditch, the decision said.
