'They didn't pave the driveway for the ducks' benefit': N.S. court sides with claimant over botched job

A Nova Scotia man who filed a lawsuit after a bad driveway job in Cape Breton has been awarded $3,689.08 by a small claims court adjudicator.

Shawn William Brown paid defendants Peter Magliaro and Bridge Paving Ltd. $4,600 in cash to pave his driveway in the summer of 2021, but was unsatisfied with the outcome within days of the job being completed.

"When ducks come to the puddles in your driveway, there's a problem," begins the decision written by adjudicator Raffi A. Balmanoukian.

Citing photographic evidence, Balmanoukian said that "by all accounts" it was a "botched job," with both esthetic problems and safety issues.

"Perhaps the ducks enjoy the puddles," he wrote in his decision. "The humans don't. And they didn't pave the driveway for the ducks' benefit.

"Repeated assurances from the Defendants that they would make things right turned out to be a complete canard."

In July 2023, Brown's initial payment was refunded.

But he was still not satisfied and filed suit, estimating that he would need to spend thousands more to make the driveway functional again.

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