Important Victory for Développements St-Antoine in Fair and Equitable Expropriation Indemnity Case

Développements St-Antoine has won an important victory in an expropriation dispute before the Tribunal administratif du Québec against the ministère des Transports du Québec.

The general rule in expropriation cases is that the valuation date of the immovable is equal to the possession date by the expropriator. However, such date can also be established on the notice of expropriation publication date when a notice of land reservation is published before the notice of expropriation.

In the present case, the expropriator waited 40 months after valuation date established on the publication date of the notice of expropriation, without a valid reason, to take possession of Développements St-Antoine's lot and pay a provisional indemnity.

Based notably on the theory of legitimate expectation, the judges granted Développements St-Antoine an indemnity of more than $22.3 million to compensate it for, among other things, the loss of appreciation in the immovable value   between the valuation date and the date the provisional indemnity was paid:

[I]t would be too easy for an expropriator to take advantage of this exception to unduly delay the progress of an expropriation file and pay compensation based on values that have quickly become anachronistic.

BCF is proud to have acted on behalf of Développements St-Antoine with a team composed of Simon Pelletier, Vicky Berthiaume, Geneviève Bernier Gosselin and Maxime-O. Brassard-Samson.

To read the full judgment, click here (in French only).