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Torts - Negligence - Duty of Care (6). T.C.O. Agromart Ltd. v. Sutton Farms (Nacona) Ltd.
In T.C.O. Agromart Ltd. v. Sutton Farms (Nacona) Ltd. (Ont CA, 2026) the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed an OLA-negligence appeal, this brought against the dismissal of an action where the court held that "the owner of the land owed no duty to warn users" - here to "stay in the centre of the bridge".
Here the court considers negligence 'standard of care', finding that the trial court erroneously conflated it with it's causation analysis:1. The Lack of Findings on the Standard of Care and Defining the Duty to Warn
[37] As noted above, the trial judge considered causation to be the critical issue, with the result that she approached her determination of liability by assuming without deciding that the first three elements required to establish negligence had been met. She then conducted an analysis to determine whether the conduct of the defendant was the legal and proximate cause of the accident. She did so for efficiency: if the conduct of the defendant was not the cause of the accident, as the trial judge stated, “the inquiry was over.”
[38] In so doing, the trial judge made a reviewable error in the manner in which she first defined the scope of the duty in the circumstances of this case, and then in concluding there was no such duty here.
[39] She then applied that erroneous definition to the causation analysis which led her to conclude that she did not need to make findings with respect to the other elements relevant to a claim of negligence and breach of s. 3(1) of the OLA.
[40] It was common ground at trial that there was no warning of any kind given, either by way of signage posted at the bridge or by way of direct communications to the appellant or its driver.
[41] The basis for the finding of the trial judge that the absence of any warning was not a factual cause of the accident is found at paragraph 96 of the reasons:However, I am not prepared to find that the absence of warnings was a factual cause of the accident. A sign warning Mr. Denyes of the risk of failing to stay in the centre of the Bridge would not have prevented the accident since Mr. Denyes already knew he had to keep the Sprayer centred. Therefore, I find that signs warning of the need to stay in the centre of the Bridge or that the overhang was not supported were not required by s. 3 of the OLA in this case. [42] In my view, the trial judge committed a legal error by conflating causation with the standard of care and effectively failing to perform a standard of care analysis. Once she decided that the presence of signage would not have prevented the accident, she determined that signage was not required to meet the standard of care, and therefore, there was no breach of that standard.
[43] This analysis was an error. The focus of the standard of care analysis must be on the conduct of the bridge owner and what duty he or she owes to all users of the bridge. Using causation as a proxy for the standard of care uses the conduct of one particular injured party to determine the scope of the bridge owner's general duty owed to all users. A lack of causation in one particular case does not mean there was no breach of the standard of care.
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