Court of Appeal upholds ruling that CP Rail was not liable for Lac-Mégantic disaster

Workers comb through debris after a train derailed July 9, 2013, causing explosions of railway cars carrying crude oil in Lac-Megantic, Quebec. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

MONTREAL — Quebec’s Court of Appeal has upheld a 2022 lower court ruling that found Canadian Pacific Railway did not have legal liability for the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster that killed 47 people.

The province’s high court heard arguments from three joined appeals seeking that the railway company be required to pay into a compensation fund for about 4,000 victims of the 2013 tragedy.

Canadian Pacific was the only one of 24 companies targeted in a class-action lawsuit that refused to voluntarily pay into the victim compensation fund, which totalled about $460 million.

In December 2022, Superior Court Justice Martin Bureau ruled that Canadian Pacific’s behaviour, whether at fault or not, was not the “direct, immediate and logical cause” of the damages suffered by victims.

That responsibility, the judge ruled, lay with the train’s driver — Thomas Harding — and his employer, Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway Limited.

In a ruling today, a three-judge panel from the Court of Appeal agreed with that ruling and denied all three appeals.

On July 6, 2013, a runaway train hauling tanker cars loaded with crude oil broke loose and barrelled into the town of 6,000 before derailing and exploding, killing 47 and wiping out a large swath of downtown.

CP said it bore no responsibility for the disaster because the train was not operated by CP employees or travelling on CP tracks when it derailed.

The Court of Appeal found that the appellants did not succeed in demonstrating that the judge made numerous errors of fact and law. The three joined appeals were brought forth by a group of citizens, insurance firms that paid into the compensation fund, and the Quebec government.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 26, 2025.