A Canadian woman was awarded $20,000 in damages by the Supreme court of the nation after she was arrested for not holding on to an escalator handrail.

Bela Kosoian was arrested in 2009 for not holding on to a handrail while riding an escalator at the Montmorency Montreal Metro station in Laval, Quebec.

A sign warning people to hold onto the handrail was located near the escalator. Kosoian was, however, looking through her purse during the ride down from the escalator and she did not hold the handrail. When she got to the bottom, an officer stopped her and asked her to follow him.

Kosoian refused as she felt she didn’t do anything wrong. She also refused to give her identification to the officer, a case brief posted online said. The lady was detained for her actions and fined $320 for obstructing an inspection worker and given a $100 ticket for disobeying the sign. She was let go after 30 minutes.

She was acquitted of the violation of law in 2012 by a public court and filed a $45,000 lawsuit against Montreal's transit authority, the City of Laval and one of the officers, Fabio Camacho, CBC News reported. Her suit was rejected in 2015 by the Quebec court and again by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2017, which claimed Kosoian was responsible for what happened.

However, Kosoian refused to give up and approached the supreme court. The Supreme Court heard the case and unanimously overturned the previous decisions. According to the court, the sign at the metro was merely a warning and not a law and that Kosoian had no legal obligation to hold the handrail.

"A reasonable police officer should have known that people didn’t have to hold handrails. Or at least they should have had some doubt," the court ruling stated. "This case was about civil liability for doing something wrong. In a free and democratic society, police officers can’t interfere with people’s freedoms except where the law says so. They have to know the law and act within it."

The court ruled that Kosoian be paid $20,000 in damages, with the Société de transport de Montréal, which operates the Metro, and Camacho, each liable for half the amount.

A visibly emotional Kosoian said she was happy that the judges recognized the rule of law. She said the decision was not for herself but for all the Canadians.

Courtroom
This photo shows a view of the defendant's table in a courtroom closed due to budget cuts and layoffs, at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles on March 16, 2009. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
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