In what circumstances will a defendant be held liable for leaving a city truck running and unattended outside a coffee shop?

In Kalogeropoulos v. Ottawa (City of), [1996] O.J. No. 3449, the court held that nervousness and panic may be visited upon a thief driving a stolen motor vehicle in fear of apprehension. It is the nervousness and panic that causes the propensity of the thief to drive dangerously. Justice Morin found on the evidence in Kalogeropoulos that the defendant who was the lawful driver of the city vehicle was liable for leaving that vehicle running and unattended outside a coffee shop at three o’clock in the morning. The likelihood that the theft would be observed by patrons in the coffee shop and that a chase would ensue which would cause nervousness and perhaps panic to the thief was found to make it reasonably foreseeable to the lawful driver and his employer and vehicle owner that the thief could cause damage to others by his driving. The court concluded on those facts that the lawful driver by his negligence of leaving the truck unlocked and unattended with the engine running created a chain of events that led to a collision. That the lawful driver knew or ought to have known there was a real and substantial risk of damage to others if the truck was stolen because of his negligence resulted in the realization of one scenario contemplated in Spagnolo.