Law360 Canada ( June 8, 2018, 12:59 PM EDT) -- Appeal by the Ville de Montréal (City) from a judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal affirming a decision finding that Lonardi and the other respondents were not solidarily liable for the damage caused to its vehicles. The Court had to determine to what extent a rioter who caused property damage could be held solidarily liable to the victim for damage done to the same property by other rioters. Numerous acts of mischief were committed during a riot. These included the vandalizing of 15 patrol cars belonging to the police department of the City. The police investigation, helped in particular by photographs and videos, led to the identification and arrest of a number of rioters, including about 20 people who had damaged or destroyed several of the City’s patrol cars. The City decided to institute one civil action per vehicle, with the exception of one action relating to two vehicles that had been damaged by two individuals acting in concert. In each action, it grouped together all the identified rioters who had done damage to the vehicle or vehicles in question. It sought to have the defendants in each case held solidarily liable for the whole of the damage done to the specific patrol car and to its equipment, regardless of the nature or seriousness of the wrongful act each of them had committed. The judge ordered each defendant to make reparation for the specific damage caused by his own acts. However, the judge declined to find the defendants in each action solidarily liable, with the exception of two defendants who had acted together to set fire to a patrol car. He rejected the City’s argument that the defendants had jointly taken part in a wrongful act and were therefore solidarily liable under art. 1480 C.C.Q. The Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s judgments....