Supreme Court Upholds Ruling in Mine Bombing Case

During a lengthy strike at a gold mine, a bomb planted by a union worker killed nine workers. Their families sued the mine owner, security company, union and government for negligence. The trial court concluded that the defendants were negligent. The mine owner settled with the families but the other defendants appealed. The NT Court of Appeals ruled that the defendants weren’t liable for the bombing. The court explained that whether the defendants were negligent depended on whether they had a duty of care to take reasonable steps to prevent the bomber from intentionally booby-trapping the mine. Although the bombing was foreseeable, none of the defendants in this case had a special relationship with the deceased miners or had control over the bomber. Thus, there was no basis to find that they had a duty of care. The Supreme Court of Canada agreed and upheld this ruling [Fullowka v. Pinkerton’s of Canada Ltd., [2010] SCC 5 (CanLII), Feb. 18, 2010].