Minutes before her trial resumed Wednesday, alleged toothbrush victim Saliha Alnoor and her brother, Abe, sat before a computer in the B.C. Supreme Courts building law library. They were looking for evidence that Colgate-Palmolive Canada Inc. manufactured and sold harmful dental products, just as the pair claimed. Lethal ones, too.
They found stories on the Internet about "exploding" toothbrushes and "poisonous" toothpastes. Tales of oral hygiene gone horribly wrong. Armed with printouts - and a 20-page technical report they commissioned, prepared by a professional engineer and titled Analysis of Toothbrush Failure - they walked into a courtroom upstairs, ready to do battle.
Ms. Alnoor had decided to sue Colgate. Five years ago, she was in her Surrey, B.C., home, cleaning her teeth with an Active Angle brush made by the large multinational. "The toothbrush handle broke during brushing and it tore my gums," she said in her statement of claim. "My gums started bleeding and I experienced excruciating pain." Ms. Alnoor passed out from the pain, she claimed. She was lucky to have family members around, she said, to make sure she "did not swallow and choke and drown in my blood while I was unconscious."
She was in pain "for weeks" and experienced swelling in her mouth. She could not eat solid food, nor floss or brush properly, she says. She required special medical treatment and dental implants. "As a result of this ordeal, I lost a lot of weight and I felt really sick and weak," reads her statement of claim.
Colgate's Active Angle is nothing less than a "killer toothbrush," Ms. Alnoor alleged in another document that she prepared and brought with her to court on Wednesday. The product didn't kill her, but no matter. "The Active Angle toothbrush suffered from serious mechanical design flaws which were known or ought to have been known by the defendant at all times material to this claim."
In a statement of defence, Colgate denied any wrongdoing and said if Ms. Alnoor suffered any injuries, they were her own fault.
Ms. Alnoor's trial began Tuesday. No evidence was heard. Proceedings kept bogging down with arguments and rulings, with adjournments, with polite reprimands and instructions to the plaintiff from the presiding judge, Madame Justice Catherine Wedge, whose patience was frequently tested.
Ms. Alnoor was not represented by counsel. She was getting a hard lesson in the law. She had only Abe, a local contractor, to help her. He sat with her in the courtroom and poked her in the ribs with an index finger, prodding her to at least try to persuade Madame Justice Wedge of one thing or another. Ms. Alnoor stood and tried, again and again, always in vain.
Outside the courtroom during breaks, Abe did most of the talking. A reporter asked why his sister was without proper counsel. Because the first lawyer she had hired "began acting strange." She found another one, "but he suggested we drop the claim," said Abe. The Alnoors dropped him, instead.
They had a problem with the judge, as well. "She is proColgate," Abe complained. "She is pro-business. Our supporters warned us this would happen, but we were naive."
Or plain foolish. Ms. Alnoor kept insisting that Colgate Canada president Scott Jeffery travel to Vancouver and appear as a witness. The Alnoors offered him $1,200 for travel expenses: an economy seat flight from Toronto, one night in a suburban motel and a return red-eye flight. "Why should he get special treatment?" Ms. Alnoor said outside the courtroom, during yet another adjournment. "He could take a Greyhound."
Ms. Alnoor tried to present the court with her Internet chronicles, the stories about purportedly dire Colgate product failures. The judge would have none of them. Consider all your options carefully, she told the plaintiff. Colgate had once offered Ms. Alnoor $500 as compensation for her troubles, and while that offer was no longer on the table, there was now an alternative: terminate the lawsuit. Walk away, and quit badmouthing Colgate.
Ms. Alnoor and her brother went to lunch and thought about it. They returned, and told Judge Wedge they would accept Colgate's proposal, that she drop her suit and pay none of the company's legal costs, about $30,000. The judge looked relieved. Everyone did. The nonsense was over.
"We spent $21,000 on lawyers and experts, but we have no regrets," said Abe, leaving the courtroom for the last time. "Now we know how justice works. Now we are much wiser."
Ms. Alnoor nodded. "I had to do it," she said. "I couldn't live with myself if I hadn't." And she flashed a lovely, pearly-white smile.
