Two Tim Hortons restaurants were accused of failing to pay delivery bills after refusing to accept a shipment of spoiled and rotten ingredients delivered by a courier company. The tribunal ruled against the courier company based on the legal interpretation of “God’s work.”
According to a ruling released Thursday (5th) by the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, Clark Reefer Lines is demanding that TDL Group Corp., the parent company of the two Tim Hortons locations involved, pay four bills totaling $4,164 for 2022. TDL Group Corp. responded that the restaurants caused the food to spoil and therefore refused to pay. The goods were originally scheduled to be shipped from Langley to Vancouver Island on December 22, 2022, but ultimately arrived a week late.
The shipping company stated that a blizzard occurred at the time, coinciding with the Christmas holiday, making it impossible to deliver the goods on time. Truck drivers reported that the Tim Hortons branch in Victoria delivered jalapenos with an off-putting smell and rotten lettuce, while the branch in Langford refused to accept the delivery due to spoiled ingredients.
Tribunal David Jiang explained that even if the transport company is not at fault or negligent, it should still be liable for the loss or damage of goods—unless it can prove that there are exceptional circumstances, such as what the law calls “Act of God” (or “force majeure”), which usually refers to natural events that are beyond human control or prevention. The transportation company argued that the blizzard was clearly “the work of God.”
However, Jiang Guan explained: “Reasonable and foreseeable events do not fall under the category of ‘God’s doing.’ ‘God’s doing’ refers to things that rational people cannot prevent even if they take reasonable measures.” He pointed out that the evidence submitted by the transportation company was insufficient to constitute grounds for exemption from liability.
“Such evidence could be weather forecasts for the relevant dates, drivers’ statements about road conditions, or government-issued road closures and traffic notices, but the transport company only described the blizzard as ‘powerful’ as evidence. I cannot conclude from this that the blizzard was so severe that it was unpredictable and that reasonable preventative measures could not be taken to deal with it.”
Furthermore, the shipping company’s attribution of some of the shipping delays to work schedules during the holiday period is clearly not “God’s doing.” The tribunal estimated that Tim Hortons lost more than 3,000 kilograms of food, resulting in a loss of more than $13,000, far exceeding the total value of the four shipping bills. Therefore, the tribunal ruled against the shipping company’s claim.