The B.C. Supreme Court has awarded $1.8 million in damages to a man who was assaulted and wrongfully arrested by security guards as a teenager at Metrotown mall in 2019.
The court ruling says $1 million of the award is for punitive damages to be paid by Paladin Security, after the company’s trained guards pushed the teen down a set of stairs and wrongfully arrested them, testifying they “believed they had done nothing wrong.”
The ruling says the plaintiff, anonymized since they were a minor at the time, is a transgender man who identified as female in 2019, and had been banned from the mall in the months before the assault, arrest and detention that spurred the lawsuit.
It says the defendants, Paladin and mall owner Ivanhoe Cambridge, admitted to the assault of the plaintiff, who was 17 at the time, and that the unlawful arrest involved excessive force and false imprisonment by locking the plaintiff in a mall detention cell without access to a phone.
The court ruling says the defendants also admitted that the guards’ conduct caused “pain, a concussion, bruising, headaches, exhaustion, sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression and loss of self-esteem.”
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The judge says Paladin Security was “extremely lucky” in the case because the injuries suffered by the plaintiff were serious but “nowhere near what was reasonably foreseeable” in the circumstances, and that “nothing less” than $1 million in punitive damages would get the company’s attention.
The judge found Paladin senior management was dismissive about the incident and failed to properly investigate what occurred after receiving a complaint.
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“Even after this lawsuit was filed, Paladin failed, once again, to carefully consider and review these serious allegations and consider corrective action,” the ruling says. “Paladin’s uncaring attitude is not a one-time occurrence, but part of the culture of how upper management responds to complaints of excessive force employed by their workforce.”
The damages award also includes $250,000 in aggravated damages, $25,000 for past income loss, $500,000 for future income and loss of earning capacity, and $25,000 for future care.
“We are both surprised and disappointed by the ruling,” Paladin president Chad Kalyk said in an email to The Canadian Press. “We are reviewing the decision carefully and obtaining advice on a possible appeal.”
Lawyers for the plaintiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
read the decision before commenting please. The youth was NOT banned. this was found as a fact by the judge. Paladin falsified records to try and show a ban after the assault took place. at no time did the youth try to resist. the guards escalated nearly immediately in the face of compliance.
the youth was also not “dressed up as a girl.” at the time of the assault the youth identified as female.
Paladin ADMITTED liability for the assault, wrongful arrest and wrongful imprisonment. the punitive damages were awarded because Paladin did a slipshod investigation, admitted they negligently trained their guards but then tried to hide behind the fact the guards ‘did what they were trained to do’, and showed zero signs of changing its behaviour
Nobody has a right to throw someone down a flight of stairs. Security guard are there to report, not arrest and detained. Pallidin deserve everything they got.
Lina the 18 year old is a MAN. My step father was 17 fighting in World War 2. This MAN was banned from the mall, HE is not deaf and dumb, HE should have stayed away. This will have other people to ignore bans and egg on the security. They need to appeal this wrong decision
The GUY was banned from the mall. Security got HIM SECURED. I think this is a wrong decision. This would not have happened if the GUY didn’t enter the mall. I hope this gets appealed.
That’s awesome!!! These security guards, like bylaws, are arbitrary powers, have no right, or law to take such power-tripping actions, and all encouraging and ordering such should have their heads examined!!! I hope you’re ok 18 yr old. 👊💜
He dressed up as a girl. How much loss of self esteem could he suffer?
He was right to be detained, and escorted off the mall property. However pushing him down a flight of stairs was assault. Locking him up might have been the correct move, if they felt that the youth would not obey the instructions not to trespass and was a danger to commit the problems that caused him to be banned in the first place. Holding him until the police arrived may have been warranted.
This could be appealed, but only the wrongful arrest, and false imprisonment part. – that is a standard result of theft or trespass. If a citizen does not have the right to reasonably protect their property, we get to be uncontrollable like New York, where shops close because petty theft is not prosecuted.