CanadaWhen can I sue someone other than the person who directly injured me?
You can sue someone other than the person who directly injured you if they owed you a legal duty of care and their negligence or wrongful act caused your injury — for example, an employer for an employee’s actions, or a vehicle custodian who failed to secure a car that was later stolen and used to injure you.
What the Law Says
Canadian tort law allows victims to hold third parties liable when those parties owe a duty of care and breach it in a way that causes foreseeable harm. There is no single statute that defines all third-party liability; instead, it arises from common law principles developed by courts.
Third-party liability most commonly arises in cases of vicarious liability (e.g., employers for employees’ acts during employment), negligent supervision, or failure to control dangerous situations.
The foundational test for whether a duty of care exists is the two-stage Anns/Cooper framework: (1) Is there sufficient proximity between the parties? (2) Are there any policy reasons to limit or deny the duty?
No federal or provincial statute is cited in the prompt, so statutory quotes are not included.
What Courts Have Said
The Supreme Court of Canada has clarified when non-perpetrators — like businesses or property custodians — can be held liable for injuries caused by others’ actions.
The Court held that a commercial garage did not owe a duty of care to a teenager injured by a stolen vehicle because there was insufficient proximity — the risk of theft and subsequent injury was not reasonably foreseeable given the circumstances, and imposing liability would not align with fair policy considerations.
What to Do
Identify whether the third party had control over the situation, person, or instrument that caused your injury.
Assess whether harm to someone like you was reasonably foreseeable to that party.
Determine whether a close and direct relationship (proximity) existed — e.g., employer-employee, landlord-tenant, or business-customer.
Consult a lawyer to evaluate whether policy reasons (e.g., fairness, precedent, social impact) support imposing a duty of care.
File your claim within the applicable limitation period — usually 2 years from discovery of the injury in most provinces.
Sources
Not legal advice. This article is general information based on publicly available sources, written for educational purposes. Laws change and individual situations vary. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before acting on anything you read here. Last reviewed: 2026-06-08.