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A Griffintown ping-pong bar that was forced to close due to an error by the city will receive close to half a million dollars in compensation over the mistake.
According to Metro, bar Playground will receive $435,000 in damages from the Sud-Ouest borough, after an out-of-court settlement.
The bar opened on Notre-Dame West in summer 2017, with capacity for 100, but last winter it came to light that the building housing the bar was not eligible for a bar permit — even though Playground had already been issued one before opening. It seems that complaints about noise from neighbours may not have helped the bar’s situation, possibly drawing scrutiny that eventually revealed the error with the permit.
The bar’s owners suggested to Eater at the time that they had addressed the noise complaints, but it didn’t matter — the permit was revoked about a month after the error was revealed, and Playground closed its doors.
Playground’s owners sought $1.2 million in compensation over the mistake, which was initially slated to be heard in a Quebec Superior Court. The bar determined that this amount would cover money spent on equipment, money spent on both opening and closing the bar, and lost profits. However, after looking over evidence provided to justify the amount, Quebec’s Directorate of Civil Affairs and accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers determined a lower level of compensation was justified.
At the time of Playground’s shutter, the Sud-Ouest borough admitted that an error had been made by employees with the bar’s permit, however, at that time, the bar complained that the borough did not do enough to make up for the error.
Given that this was an out-of-court settlement, the compensation money is final, and cannot be appealed.
Correction: an earlier version of this article said that Playground won compensation in court — it was actually determined via an out-of-court settlement.