B.C.’s Civil Resolution Tribunal has ordered man to pay the City of Surrey $874 after he painted badminton court lines on a city street.
City staff said Lian Gong Tu painted the lines without the city's consent.
Surrey claimed $1,623.33 in damages for its costs to remove the paint lines from the road. However, that amount covers the cost of removing both the badminton court lines as well as pickleball lines painted by others earlier, tribunal member Leah Volkers said in an April 24 decision.
Tu did not dispute that he painted the badminton court lines. But he said he shouldn't have to reimburse Surrey for its paint removal costs, arguing he was not the only person who painted the road.
Tu provided a signed statement from two others who said they began using Surrey’s road as a pickleball court beginning in April 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They said they initially used chalk lines for the pickleball court, but eventually replaced them with painted lines. They said they agreed to share the space with Tu. Later on, they said Tu painted lines adjacent to the pickleball court for badminton.
A witness said they did not know who painted the pickleball lines but saw Tu paint the badminton lines.
"It is clear that Mr. Tu applying paint to Surrey’s road without any right to do so is a direct interference with Surrey’s property that amounts to trespass," Volkers said.
“I find the $1,623.33 claimed reflects the cost to remove both the pickleball court lines and the badminton court lines from Surrey’s road," Volkers said. "As noted, I find Mr. Tu only painted the badminton court lines."
