When Lawyer Garry Hoy Threw Himself At Window To Show It Was Unbreakable But Fell To Death

A playful antic cost a successful lawyer his life when he fell from a skyscraper building window in an attempt to prove the window pane’s unbreakability. On the fateful day of July 9, 1993, Garry Hoy, a well-respected lawyer at the Holden Day Wilson law firm was with a group of law students, who were set to intern with them through the summer. Garry Hoy was giving them a tour of the firm’s 24th floor office located within the Toronto-Dominion Centre. At one point, he tried to demonstrate the unbreakability of the building’s massive window panes by slamming himself to the window.

Reportedly, he had done this trick many times. When he slammed himself into the window, the glass stayed intact. However, when he slammed his body to the window the second time, the glass fell from the pane and Garry Hoy fell to his death. This horrific incident sent shockwaves across the financial district and likely traumatised the law interns. This incident occurred inside a small conference room of the law firm’s office.

As per an old report in Toronto Star, a structural engineer said, “I don’t know of any building code in the world that would allow a 160-pound (73 kg) man to run up against a glass and withstand it.” Interestingly, the glass pane survived the fall. Garry Hoy fell as the glass frame could not hold the pressure.

Peter Lauwers, the managing partner of Holden Day Wilson, told the Ottawa Citizen that the company invited a crisis team from the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry to provide counselling to the office workers and Garry Hoy’s colleagues. Peter Lauwers described Garry Hoy’s fatal fall as a “freak accident”. He said Garry Hoy was a brilliant lawyer and “bright light with the firm, a generous person who cared about others.”

Garry Hoy was a graduate of the University of Toronto graduate, and specialised in corporate law. He was separated from his wife and had no children. His demise was ruled as “death by misadventure”. He was 38 years old.

It is reported that soon after Garry Hoy’s death, Holden Day Wilson suffered financially and closed three years later. Canadian paper The Globe and Mail reported on the firm’s closing and wrote, “The challenge of coping with the traumatic event proved to be too much for the young firm and within three years nearly 30 lawyers had left.” The firm closed in 1996, which at the time was the largest law firm closure in Canada.