An injury on vacation led to a 10-year legal battle. Now, this PI is fighting to keep $790K in damages
CBC
What was supposed to be a relaxing Caribbean vacation for Tom Klatt and his wife after a stressful year instead turned his life upside down.
One of Canada's most high-profile private investigators, Klatt of Toronto was an active guy before a fall at a Sandals all-inclusive resort in Saint Lucia in 2009 left him with a severe leg injury.
"It destroyed me; to stay fit became a real battle," Klatt said. "I want to go for a walk with my son, and well, I can go to the end of the driveway."
Now 12 years — and a decade-long legal battle — later, Klatt wants to warn Canadian travellers about how hard it is to hold others accountable for injuries sustained on vacation abroad.
Klatt's case was heard in Ontario Superior Court, but the negligence laws of Saint Lucia applied to the case because that's where he was injured.
"I didn't know there is a law in Saint Lucia that says, no matter what happens, the plaintiff is liable for 25 per cent of everything," Klatt told CBC News.
"We were cautious and I still slipped, and [yet] I'm 25 per cent responsible."
After that deduction, Klatt was awarded nearly $790,000 in damages, as well as cost of future care, in a decision last year that found negligence on the part of Sandals Regency La Toc Golf Resort and Spa for the fall that caused his injury.
But the lawsuit isn't over yet.
Sandals is now disputing the decision through the Ontario Court of Appeal. In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for the company declined an interview request, citing a Sandals Resorts policy not to comment on legal matters.
Klatt and his wife arrived at the resort on Jan. 4, 2009. After dinner on the couple's second night there, they returned to their private villa where Klatt slipped and fell on the exterior staircase going down to the suite's plunge pool.
"There were no rails," Klatt told CBC News. "I slipped off the second-last step, crashed into the wall and had severe pain in the left leg."
The staircase's design, a lack of sufficient lighting and the absence of handrails were all factors in Klatt's fall, according to Ontario Justice Lorne Sossin. And the combination of factors led the judge to conclude the resort was liable for the injury.
"He was an innocent person walking down the set of steps that were designed for someone to fall," said Joe Falconeri, Klatt's lawyer.
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