Legal Research

The Common Law Lives

By Angela Swan

I hope that all members of Slaw are as pleased as I am to note that the British Columbia Supreme Court has recently applied the law of distress damage feasant in upholding (at least partly) the claims of the University of British Columbia to be able to charge those who illegally park on the campus. See Barbour v. University of British Columbia (2009), 310 D.L.R. (4th) 130. The battles between students and the parking police and towing company in my time at UBC were legendary. The cry was “Buck Fusters!”; the towing company being called “Busters”!

There was story that Harry Street, the noted torts scholar, successfully levied distress damage feasant on a Nottingham Corporation bus which trespassed on his lawn. The Corporation?s employees were apparently unaware that they could not recover their bus without paying compensation.

Keep these examples in mind when the next bus or car or whatever lands on your property, provided always that it causes damage.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).