The Supreme Court of Canada has awarded compensation to a woman who had been arrested and forced to pay a fine for allegedly making a strange mistake because she "did not hold the escalator barrier," while standing.
In 2009, Bella Cosoyan was standing on a escalator at a metro station in Laval, Quebec, searching her bag without holding the movable barrier, despite a sign alerting people to the need.
A policeman approached Cosoyan and asked her to hold the barrier.When she stepped out of the escalator, she approached her and demanded to catch him to another location, but she refused, believing that she had done nothing wrong, and also refused to present her identification.
The policeman subsequently arrested and detained Cosoyan, and when she was released, she was forced to pay a fine of C$ 100 (US $ 75) for failing to abide by the instructions on the sign, plus $ 320 for “obstructing the work of the inspection officer”.
In 2012, Cosoyan was acquitted of wrongdoing, but sued the transport authority in Montreal, the city, and a policeman for $ 45,000 in damages.
In 2015, the case was dismissed in the Quebec Court, and again in 2017 by the Court of Appeal of Quebec, according to Fox News.
But the Supreme Court backed Cosoyan and overturned earlier judicial decisions, finding the sign at the subway station "a warning, not a law."
The court ruled to compensate Cosoyan for C $ 20,000, or $ 15,000.
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