As another attempt to work around the bug, I had tried creating the expected folder in my download path. It didn't change the error I received:
========== >transmission-remote-cli MiniMetro-gamma19a-linux.tar.gz.torrent EXECUTING: transmission-remote localhost:9091 -a MiniMetro-gamma19a-linux.tar.gz.torrent RESPONSE: Error: invalid or corrupt torrent file ========== and in /var/log/syslog: ========== May 21 13:42:27 1234 transmission-daemon[475]: [2017-05-21 13:42:27.278] dinosaurpoloclub/MiniMetro-gamma19a-linux.tar.gz Invalid metadata entry "path" (metainfo.c:590) ==========