FILE PHOTO.

(GLYNN BROTHEN / iNFOnews.ca)

The province's highest court has upheld a ruling that found the City of Revelstoke partly responsible for a Surrey firefighter's catastrophic injuries after he dove head first off a rock into a lake near a city-owned campsite.

The panel of three judges at the Court of Appeal of B.C. found that while firefighter Aaron Gelowitz dove while on private land, the City still owned him a duty of care because it maintained a raft nearby and it knew about the hazards and popularity of jumping from the rocks.

According to a March 29 B.C. Court of Appeal decision, the City of Revelstoke appealed last year's ruling which found the City 35 per cent responsible for Gelowitz's injuries.

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The case dates back to 2015 when Gelowitz was camping at a City-owned site at Williamson Lake in Revelstoke.

The small lake contained a City-owned dock which Gelowitz swam out to. He then continued to swim to the other side of the lake and climbed onto some rocks, known as Big Rock and Little Rock which are on private land.

The water was dark and he performed a "shallow dive" but struck an object under the water, likely a submerged log.

He was airlifted to Vancouver and spent months in the hospital with a spinal cord injury.

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Gelowitz then sued the City of Revelstoke saying it was negligent because there was no sign telling people not to dive into the lake due to underwater hazards.

He claimed he was 50 per cent responsible and the City was 50 per cent responsible.

While the rocks were on a privately owned piece of land that is undeveloped and forested, the B.C. Supreme Court found the City 35 per cent at fault.

An earlier court decision says that the land's owners, Revelstoke Alpine Village, settled the case with Gelowitz out of court.

The decision says after a safety audit a few years earlier a "no diving" sign was painted on a rock, however, it appeared the rock was never repainted.

The trial judge ruled the City fell short of its duty of care and noted that while cost to the City of painted "no diving" signs was minimal, the risk of harm was grave.

The Court of Appeal agreed.

"In doing so, however, I consider it important to re-state the precise nature of the duty of care that has been established in this case: it is a duty to warn Mr. Gelowitz as a park user of the known risks associated with the use of the park facility, which includes a duty to warn of the risks of diving in the area extending from the park foreshore to the eastern shore at Big Rock and Little Rock, locations in close proximity to the City’s raft, which were known by the City to be accessed by park users," the Justice said.

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The decision does not mention damages or costs.

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