Victory at the end of a legal maze

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This article was published 05/06/2024 (847 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The owner of a popular attraction has won a legal battle against the Manitoba government, nearly five years after his property was intentionally swamped by floodwater and he was driven to the brink of bankruptcy.

A Maze in Corn, which operates a corn maze and haunted forest near St. Adolphe, was flooded in the fall of 2019 when the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization operated the Red River Floodway during a period of high rain.

Court documents say the provincial body made the decision to reduce the threat of sewer backups in Winnipeg, understanding it would cause water to spill over the floodplains south of the city.

Despite a legal obligation to compensate affected property owners for the resulting damage, A Maze in Corn owner Clint Masse said the provincial body offered him a fraction of his estimated loss.

“It’s absolutely frustrating. My business was on the line. I was in a desperate way, for sure,” Masse said, describing his years-long battle to fight the decision.

“It honestly felt like I was negotiating with a dictatorship, not our provincial government.”

Masse alleges the province did not abide by compensation provisions in the Red River Floodway Act and intentionally used “whatever narrow definition of business loss that they could find” to determine his settlement offer.

After meeting with an accredited insurance adjuster, Masse requested compensation equivalent to the five-year average of his general revenue for the affected part of the season. That would have totalled more than $300,000, he said.

The EMO rejected the claim and capped compensation at $181,559, court documents show.

Masse appealed the decision to the Manitoba Disaster Assistance Appeal Board in 2020. It upheld the ruling, which forced him to file an appeal in court.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled in March that the province must cover his legal fees and reassess what it owes him.

Justice Holly Beard ruled A Maze in Corn’s appeal included evidence and documentation for a claim of up to $1.1 million in brand damage, future losses and legal fees as a result of the flood.

The business was initially willing to accept $247,081 for such damages, but in its appeal, asked the court to consider the full amount, the decision says.

Beard determined the business was within its legal grounds to include those losses in its claim, and the EMO should account for them in determining its settlement offer.

Masse and his legal team asked the court to determine a fair settlement, hoping to avoid further litigation. The province argued it should be able to re-evaluate the offer based on Beard’s ruling.

Beard decided the court was not in a position to determine compensation, and tasked the province with reassessing Masse’s claim.

While the successful appeal is a win for the business owner, it also means he is back where he started, he said.

“We are not done yet. The ruling is in hand, they have to pay us, they have to follow the rules,” Masse said, noting he is willing to return to court if the province doesn’t make a fair offer.

“They could have pushed me to bankruptcy. We’re in it for the long haul now.”

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca