Big victory today for the rights of Montrealers.
A municipal court judge has tossed out $7,843 in fines issued by the City of Ste. Anne de Bellevue.
The municipality had attempted to punish a local landlord with 46 fines of $173 each for allowing graffiti to linger on his wall from mid-Dec. 2012.
The landlord was exonerated Friday, as the judge ordered him to pay one single fine of $145, while the other tickets were tossed out.
The judge deemed the fines to be be far out of proportion to any harm caused.
But more importantly, she ruled that the municipality of Ste Anne de Bellevue showed bad faith in its attempt to furtively ambush somebody with a pile of fines.
The saga began in Dec. 2012 when two Ste. Anne de Bellevue inspectors told the landlord of the newly-painted black squiggles on a wall.
An inspector explained in a brief phone call that the city has a policy of dealing with graffiti on private properties by painting over it with white paint.
Both sides agreed that this is what the city should do if the graffiti was not cleaned up by the owner within a few days.
The two sides, however, apparently hung up with entirely different understandings of the resolution.
The inspectors apparently believed that the landlord had banned them from painting over the graffiti.
The landlord understood that the city would come by and paint the graffiti white after a few days if he could not find matching paint in the storeroom.
The inspectors never painted anything and never said another word about the small and fast-fading bit of black paint scrawled on the wall.
What the landlord did not know was that the inspectors were busy writing up dozens of fines of $100 plus various fees, which rose the bill to about $173 per ticket.
The municipality later admitted that they made no effort to contact the landlord in any way during this process.
Indeed the municipality only mailed the tickets the following summer, long after the graffiti was gone.
The landlord only learned about the impending fines when a nearby merchant told him about them in a casual conversation in May 2013.
Why that merchant knew while the alleged offender was left in the dark remains a mystery.
The landlord had been in touch with various municipal officials about the building during the winter and those Ste. Anne de Bellevue municipal employees never mentioned any issue with graffiti.
Many of the tickets issued included notes claiming that the landlord had refused repeatedly to erase the graffiti, a claim proven patently false in court.
Friday's verdict affirms that authorities have an obligation to show good faith and attempt to warn alleged offenders before sending them multiple fines.
Contacting and warning alleged offenders before issuing fines is standard procedure elsewhere but any failure by municipal authorities to make that effort could now result in fines being tossed out.
Just prior to the trial, the municipality of Ste. Anne de Bellevue likely realized its folly and attempted to back out of the prosecution.
The courthouse prosecutor offered the landlord a plea agreement which would have seen him pay just three fines. The other pile of 43 fines would be dismissed.
A Montreal prosecutor, likely less familiar with the details of the case, declined to ratify the deal, so the lame duck prosecution went forward, with two days of testimony and cross-examination.
As a result, a Montreal courthouse prosecutor bears part of the blame for this wasteful legal fiasco.
The lengthy verdict read by the judge Friday at the West Island courthouse on St. John's Blvd. touches on various nuances of law.
The text was not available at the time of this writing but we will post it when it comes in.
The landlord in question is, of course, myself,
The lengthy battle was extremely stressful but hopefully the verdict will help prevent others from legal abuse.
In a few small way I feel part of a long tradition of the Montreal civil rights court battlers whom I greatly admire, from Fred Christie, to John Switzman, to Frank Roncarelli.
A municipal court judge has tossed out $7,843 in fines issued by the City of Ste. Anne de Bellevue.
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| City inspectors failed to contact a landlord whose building sits just 100 metres from town hall |
The landlord was exonerated Friday, as the judge ordered him to pay one single fine of $145, while the other tickets were tossed out.
The judge deemed the fines to be be far out of proportion to any harm caused.
But more importantly, she ruled that the municipality of Ste Anne de Bellevue showed bad faith in its attempt to furtively ambush somebody with a pile of fines.
The saga began in Dec. 2012 when two Ste. Anne de Bellevue inspectors told the landlord of the newly-painted black squiggles on a wall.
An inspector explained in a brief phone call that the city has a policy of dealing with graffiti on private properties by painting over it with white paint.
Both sides agreed that this is what the city should do if the graffiti was not cleaned up by the owner within a few days.
The two sides, however, apparently hung up with entirely different understandings of the resolution.
The inspectors apparently believed that the landlord had banned them from painting over the graffiti.
The landlord understood that the city would come by and paint the graffiti white after a few days if he could not find matching paint in the storeroom.
The inspectors never painted anything and never said another word about the small and fast-fading bit of black paint scrawled on the wall.
What the landlord did not know was that the inspectors were busy writing up dozens of fines of $100 plus various fees, which rose the bill to about $173 per ticket.
The municipality later admitted that they made no effort to contact the landlord in any way during this process.
Indeed the municipality only mailed the tickets the following summer, long after the graffiti was gone.
The landlord only learned about the impending fines when a nearby merchant told him about them in a casual conversation in May 2013.
Why that merchant knew while the alleged offender was left in the dark remains a mystery.
The landlord had been in touch with various municipal officials about the building during the winter and those Ste. Anne de Bellevue municipal employees never mentioned any issue with graffiti.
Many of the tickets issued included notes claiming that the landlord had refused repeatedly to erase the graffiti, a claim proven patently false in court.
Why the verdict matters to you
So why does this strange case matter to Montrealers?Friday's verdict affirms that authorities have an obligation to show good faith and attempt to warn alleged offenders before sending them multiple fines.
Contacting and warning alleged offenders before issuing fines is standard procedure elsewhere but any failure by municipal authorities to make that effort could now result in fines being tossed out.
Just prior to the trial, the municipality of Ste. Anne de Bellevue likely realized its folly and attempted to back out of the prosecution.
The courthouse prosecutor offered the landlord a plea agreement which would have seen him pay just three fines. The other pile of 43 fines would be dismissed.
A Montreal prosecutor, likely less familiar with the details of the case, declined to ratify the deal, so the lame duck prosecution went forward, with two days of testimony and cross-examination.
As a result, a Montreal courthouse prosecutor bears part of the blame for this wasteful legal fiasco.
The lengthy verdict read by the judge Friday at the West Island courthouse on St. John's Blvd. touches on various nuances of law.
The text was not available at the time of this writing but we will post it when it comes in.
The landlord in question is, of course, myself,
The lengthy battle was extremely stressful but hopefully the verdict will help prevent others from legal abuse.
In a few small way I feel part of a long tradition of the Montreal civil rights court battlers whom I greatly admire, from Fred Christie, to John Switzman, to Frank Roncarelli.