Montrealers file class action request against city, CDN-NDG over flooding
Some residents of Montreal's Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough are launching a class action request against the City of Montreal and the borough over their homes being flooded last summer.
Plaintiffs allege the city and the borough are wrongly blaming climate change for the damage and neglected to do necessary repairs on the sewer network.
On July 13, Environment Canada reported a torrential downpour in Montreal, after 50 to 100 millimetres of rain fell over the city in a couple of hours. The storm forced the closure of several roads and underpasses and flooded homes.
The plaintiffs are seeking tens of thousands of dollars in damages per resident, but above all, they are calling for urgent repairs to be done in the next six months.
The basement of Ilana Grostern, one of the plaintiffs, was submerged during the storm. She estimates the damages will cost about $50,000.
"The water came out of the sewers in our basements, from the toilet, from the bath, from the drain," she said. "Everything was destroyed. Everything had to be removed."
Charles O'Brien, who is representing the plaintiffs, filed two other class action requests for flooding in L'Île-Bizard and Saint-Leonard.
"We lost both cases, but the city did the necessary work, so it's a victory for the residents who were not flooded again," he said.
Residents of the Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough sent about 130 letters to the city about the flooding on July 13, according to court documents.
The city administration refused to comment on the class action because it said the case is before the courts.
