The B.C. Supreme Court has awarded damages to a Vancouver woman whose landlord installed, without notice, a hidden video camera in the hallway outside of her suite.
According to the ruling judge, Justice Paul Walker, at issue in the case was the competing rights of the two parties: the tenant’s ‘right to quiet enjoyment’, including the right to ‘reasonable privacy’, as entitled by Section 28 of the Residential Tenancy Act, and the landlord’s right to “protect its property and its obligation to protect the interests of other tenants in a residential apartment building.â€
In his ruling, Justice Paul Walker wrote,
As far as I am aware, there is no reported decision in Canada dealing with the issue.
Without a direct precedent or evidence as to the actual damages caused, the judge awarded the plaintiff a nominal amount of $3,500 plus court costs in compensation.
Ms. Heckert, the plaintiff, testified that she found it “very creepy” and an invasion of her privacy to have the video camera installed outside her suite.
It is clear from the video shown to me that any person watching the video images from the 12th-floor camera is able to see a very close-up and detailed image of anyone entering and exiting Ms. Heckert’s suite,
Justice Walker said.
This view is quite intrusive of personal privacy.
That has got to be the best title for a legal article that I’ve seen in a while.
Thank goodness, we have judges who can think for themselves. And kudos to the tenant took the case forward – lots of people would have been equally annoyed but are unable or unwilling to pursue a legal remedy.
$3,500.00 isn’t very much in damages, so I hope the decision included an order for the landowner to remove the camera. It doesn’t set much of a deterrence precedent for large landowners. It’s also not much of an incentive for lawyers working on contingency arrangements.