City rejects claims by family of victim killed after man fell from Leaside Bridge
In a statement of defence filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice last month, the city denies all claims in the lawsuit brought by the family of 76-year-old Harold Lusthouse and denies any liability in his death.
According to the family, Lusthouse was a passenger in a moving car on June 16, 2024, when a man fell or jumped from the bridge toward the Don Valley Parkway and landed on the car, fatally injuring Lusthouse. Lusthouse died in hospital days after the incident.
The family, which is seeking $1.7 million and potential future legal costs, is suing the city for the lack of suicide barriers on the bridge, alleging they would have prevented Lusthouse's death.
In its statement of defence, the city denies it owes a "private duty of care" to Lusthouse. It also says it is protected by the City of Toronto Act, which states that no action will be brought against the city for damages caused by the "presence, absence or insufficiency" of a wall, fence, rail or barrier along any highway.
According to the city, Toronto city council's executive committee received a report in 2018 from the Toronto medical officer of health that advised that barriers on city bridges, including the Leaside Bridge, were to be assessed through feasibility studies and any work recommended would be done in conjunction with state-of-good-repair bridge work likely in or after 2028.
In 2023, the city's transportation services division began a feasibility study for the Leaside Bridge. The city notes that Lusthouse's death occurred before that study was completed and before the bridge was due for any state-of-good-repair work.
The city also argues that even if it owed Lusthouse a duty of care, the legal action would be inadmissible under section 390 of the City of Toronto Act, which it says provides immunity if a policy decision is made in good faith. It says a decision to install suicide barriers on the Leaside Bridge would have been a policy decision made by the city.
"The decision involves the allocation of millions of dollars and requires an evaluation of, among other things, the public purpose and efficacy of such barriers; the bridge's structural integrity; the resources required to ensure future maintenance of the infrastructure; and the balancing of these considerations with other pressing issues faced by the City given its finite resources," the statement of defence reads.
In addition, the city argues that its highways are a "reasonable state of repair" and it is not compelled to take "any and all" actions to prevent accidents, including this accident, from occurring.
"The fact that an accident is possible does not require a municipality, which must allocate finite resources, to take any and all conceivable measures to prevent such an accident. The City need only take reasonable steps to ensure the state of repair of its highways, which steps are informed by policy considerations, including but not limited to considerations of distributing scarce and finite resources," the statement of defence reads.
The city is asking that the lawsuit be dismissed with costs.
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