One of Canada’s top high-profile private investigators, Klatt of Toronto was an active guy before a fall at an all-inclusive Sandals resort in 2009 left him with a serious leg injury. “It ruined me; staying fit was a real battle,” Klatt said. “I want to go for a walk with my son, and well, I can go to the end of the road.” Now, 12 years – and a decade after a court battle – Klatt wants to warn Canadian travelers about how difficult it is to hold others accountable for injuries sustained during their vacation abroad. Klatt’s case was heard in the Ontario Supreme Court, but St. Lucia’s negligence laws applied to the case because he was injured there. Tom Klatt had to use crutches to move to the private villa where he and his wife lived in Sandals Resort in St. Lucia after he was injured when he fell down the outside stairs in January 2009. (Submitted by Tom Klatt)
“I did not know there was a law in St. Lucia that says that no matter what happens, the plaintiff is responsible for 25 percent of everything,” Klat told CBC News. “We were careful and I still slipped, and [yet] “I am responsible for 25 percent.” Following that booking, Klatt received nearly $ 790,000 in damages, as well as future care costs, in a decision last year found negligent by Sandals Regency La Toc Golf Resort and Spa for the fall that caused his injury. But the trial is not over yet. Sandals is now challenging the decision through the Ontario Court of Appeal. In an email to CBC News, a company spokesman declined to be interviewed, citing Sandals Resorts’ policy of not commenting on legal issues.

Stairs “designed to make someone fall”: lawyer

Klatt and his wife arrived at the resort on January 4, 2009. After dinner the couple’s second night there, they returned to their private villa where Klatt slipped and fell down the stairs leading to the suite pool. “There were no rails,” Klatt told CBC News. “I slipped from the second last step, fell on the wall and had severe pain in my left leg.” The design of the staircase, the lack of adequate lighting and the absence of handrails were all factors in Klatt’s fall, according to Ontario Justice Lorne Sossin. And the combination of factors led the judge to conclude that the resort was responsible for the injury. Tom Klatt and his wife filmed from the base of the outside staircase of the villa where Klatt fell when they returned to St. Lucia in December 2009. (Submitted by Tom Klatt)
“He was an innocent man descending the stairs designed to make someone fall,” said Joe Falconeri, Klat’s lawyer. When Klatt returned to Toronto, an orthopedic surgeon diagnosed him with a ruptured left quadriceps tendon. Klatt underwent surgery to repair the injury, but broke it a second time in March of that year. Then, at 49, Klatt had to have another operation. “It will never be the same,” Falconeri told CBC News. “It is very rare for your quadriceps and tendons to tear from your knee – this is a very bad injury.” Doctors said Klatt would need a total knee replacement at some point, a factor the judge took into account when awarding the plaintiff future treatment costs.

I’m back for an investigation

Klatt says he decided not to sue Sandals until almost a year after he fell, when he returned to the resort in December 2009 to investigate. “Once I learned how important the injury was and the chances of me skating again, ever kicking a soccer ball, coaching my son – doing something like that – he was out the window, I wanted to see where I fell and why.” The retired Toronto Police Detective and prominent private investigator – hired to investigate the murders of billionaires Barry and Honey Sherman in 2017 – visited the villa with a video camera and measuring tape while staying elsewhere in the resort. Tom Klatt, a professional researcher, measured the stairs where he fell and was injured when he returned to the resort in December 2009. (Submitted by Tom Klatt)
“I saw that the stairs had strange heights, depths, shapes,” he said. “I was shocked.” The video taken by Klatt measuring the stairs was used as evidence in the case and enabled his lawyer to ask experts to evaluate the design and engineering of the stairs.

Restrictions on international injury cases

Since Klatt’s injury, a 2012 Canadian Supreme Court ruling made it more difficult to test international personal injury cases in Canada, according to Falconeri. “It has reduced cases like this in a very important way,” he told CBC News. Joe Falconeri was Clatt’s personal injury lawyer for his lawsuit against Sandals Resort in St. Lucia. (Angelina King / CBC)
In practice, Klatt worries that this means that other injured Canadians will find it difficult to get a lawyer to handle their case in an emergency because of how much more expensive it is to claim a case in another country. “It does not leave much room for you,” Klatt said. “I do not think you will find too many lawyers who would take on this level of responsibility for something abroad.” Given the toughest test of whether a Canadian court has jurisdiction to hear a case – and how difficult litigation can be – Toronto personal injury lawyer David Derfel says full insurance is the key to a vacation. “When you travel somewhere there is absolutely some danger in it,” Derfel said. “Take responsibility and make sure you have a good amount of insurance.” Klatt addresses these insurance concerns and hopes by sharing his story that Canadians will have a better idea of ​​what they could face abroad. “You really have to make sure your coverage is right,” he said. “And to know if you get injured, there can be a big battle on your hands.”