Nearly four years ago, Francesco Alessi was driving on Saint-Jacques Street in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood when his car hit a pothole on the side of the road. It left his brand new car with two flat tires. “The car had to be towed away. I had to call the tow truck, a flat bed tow truck and they took the car to the dealership,” Alessi said. He filed a claim with the City of Montreal, but the city denied responsibility, so Alessi took the matter to small claims court. “Interestingly, as soon as I initiated the legal procedures, they placed not one, not two, but three cones. One big cone and two small cones around the pothole,” Alessi said. It took three years, but he eventually won his case. He was awarded more than $2,000. Alessi was able to prove the pothole had existed long before it damaged his car. What he couldn’t believe was that three years after the incident, Alessi says the pothole still wasn’t fixed. “I was shocked we had to wait three years, and what really blew me away is the funds are being disbursed and again I’m going back to it, it’s not just the financial side, the pothole is still not fixed,” Alessi said. In a statement to CTV News, the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grace claims it did fix the pothole. “After verification with our teams, repairs have been carried out several times since 2021,” the borough said. The borough says this section of the road is under surveillance to minimize its deterioration. On Wednesday, CTV News noticed the pothole had been patched. CAA Quebec says Alessi’s case is rare. “The burden of proof is on the people who actually get their car broken down and then they have to pay that money up front and you have to do all the steps yourself,” Nicolas Ryan, from CAA Quebec, said. “A lot of people will actually just stop in the middle of the process or even lose sometimes in court.” Alessi says for him it wasn’t just about the money, but rather an opportunity to stand up for all drivers. “I think of all the people that are sustaining damages, but they just don’t have the ability, the time or the resources to invest and they just absorb it.”
