Good faith error acceptable defence when fighting parking tickets: Quebec court

SAINT-JEROME, Que. – Quebec’s highest court has upheld a woman’s argument she erred in good faith when she put money in the wrong parking meter and ended up getting a $43 ticket.

The woman at the centre of the case is Louise Sauve, who parked outside a Saint-Jerome poutine restaurant to grab a snack in December 2014.

She fed coins into a parking meter on a couple of occasions and only after getting a ticket did she realize it was the wrong meter, a confusion apparently caused by snow.

She contested the $43 ticket in municipal court but lost.

However, a Quebec Superior Court justice overturned that ruling on appeal in 2016, prompting the city of Saint-Jerome to launch its own appeal.

But the Quebec Court of Appeal confirmed the Superior Court ruling in a 27-page judgment handed down last week.

The appeals court noted that several judges had been uncomfortable for some time with an approach that did not allow the citizen any room for error or the opportunity to make a defence in such cases.

But the 2016 decision opened the door to a defence that wasn’t available for about 30 years.

The municipality may appeal the latest ruling.