Ragweed lawsuit against Montreal municipalities loses on appeal

Municipalities on the island of Montreal won their second legal victory on Friday against residents in a ragweed class-action lawsuit.

The Quebec Court of Appeal, the highest court in the province, rejected a $360-million claim filed in 1992 by a Montreal woman on behalf of an estimated 180,000 residents affected by ragweed.

The island's municipalities began regulating ragweed about 30 years ago, requiring all property owners to remove the plants by Aug. 1 of each year.

Montreal resident Françoise Nadon, who is allergic to ragweed pollen and suffers from hay fever, filed a class-action suit 16 years ago to try to get the cities and towns to obey their own bylaws.

The municipalities repealed the bylaws in June 1996, and the Quebec Superior Court narrowed the focus of Nadon's lawsuit limiting her to suing only municipally owned land but it eventually dismissed the claim in January 2007.

Nadon's sister, lawyer Odette Nadon, said she's disappointed by Friday's court decision because Montrealers now more than ever suffer from ragweed pollen.

She said she'll study the latest ruling before deciding if it's possible to convince the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case.