Water completely surrounded Corine LeBourdais' tack shop on her Cherry Creek property in May 2017.

(KIM ANDERSON / iNFOnews.ca)

A Kamloops area property owner's effort to hold the province liable for flooding damage was dismissed after years in court.

Cherry Creek overtopped its banks as snow melted in 2017 and damaged roads and properties just west of Kamloops. Among them was Corine LeBourdais' property, which includes a stretch of the creek.

The neighbouring property, just upstream, was an estate managed by the province. The Public Guardian and Trustee rebuilt a culvert six years earlier, which was destroyed in 2017 and LeBourdais claimed it was the reason Cherry Creek overtopped and changed its course, running through her Lazy Acres Road property, according to a recent BC Supreme Court decision.

LeBourdais claimed the Public Guardian owed her a duty of care when it installed the culvert for Cherry Creek to run through and that it negligently installed one that was undersized.

Justice Dennis Hori dismissed her claim on Dec. 27, finding there was no evidence to suggest the culvert led to damage on her property. A higher than normal snowpack led to unusually high water levels in Cherry Creek and it dislodged the culvert when it overtopped and changed directions as it passed through both properties.

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Hori said she failed to prove it was the culvert itself that caused Cherry Creek's diversion in the 2017 flood.

LeBourdais had originally filed her lawsuit against the Thompson Nicola Regional District, the BC Ministry of Transportation and the Public Guardian. Without a reasonable claim against the regional district, that action was dismissed in 2022. In January 2024 the claim against the ministry was also dismissed.

Her neighbour's property is just to the south along Lazy Acres Road and the owner had died, with the Public Guardian and Trustee managing his estate by 2011. Cherry Creek passes through both properties.

In more than two decades living in the area, LeBourdais claimed the creek had never overtopped its banks.

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The Public Guardian sought a new culvert and crossing on the driveway in 2011 and it was built the next year. On May 4, 2017, high water dislodged the culvert and obstructed the creek, according to the decision.

LeBourdais claimed the culvert blocked the creek and diverted it onto her property, but the court heard expert evidence that suggested the creek changed its course further upstream during the flood.

The extent of the damage to LeBourdais' property and the costs were not detailed in the Dec. 27 decision, but Hori's ruling means all remaining court claims following the flood on her property have been dismissed.

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