A Civil Resolution Tribunal member has dismissed a claim brought by FortisBC Energy Inc. against a Prince George-based contractor for the cost of repairing a ruptured natural gas line.
FortisBC had been seeking $2,154.64 from Enviro-Ex Contract Ltd., arguing the defendant had failed to expose the line in a sufficient number of places by hand-digging before using excavation machinery.
Enviro-Ex countered that it hand dug at three separate spots that exposed the line before it deployed the machinery and that the drawings Fortis supplied incorrectly showed the line's location as being straight when in fact it was dog-legged or bent.
In a decision issued on October 27, CRT vice chair Shelley Lopez endorsed Enviro-Ex's position, noting in part that while Fortis says hand-digging at three spots is not enough, the company "does not indicate how many locations would have been sufficient."
"Given I find the map or drawing incorrectly showed the pipe in a straight line, I find it unproven that three locations was insufficient to reasonably permit Enviro to proceed with machinery. There is no expert evidence, or any evidence, to the contrary," Lopez said.
The line was ruptured on July 19, 2021. Enviro-Ex had obtained a BC 1 Call ticket on March 25, 2021 with a scheduled work-start date of March 31, 2021. Although the ruptured occurred 19 days later, Enviro-Ex argued that the ticket authorized work on a multi-month project and that excavation work began within the 10-day period stipulated in the regulation governing the ticket.
"Fortis initially argued that because the damage occurred on July 19, 2021, Enviro no longer had a valid ticket. However, Fortis did not pursue this argument in its reply submission despite quoting Enviro’s submission on the point. I find Enviro had a valid BC 1 Call ticket," Lopez said.
