J. Scott Stanley and Elizabeth Emery successfully argued that the defendant was required to make a sizeable contribution towards the costs of purchasing an adaptive home for the plaintiff. The plaintiff sustained a spinal cord injury and was no longer able to live where she did before her accident. This decision clarified the law and confirmed that the cost of purchasing a home is a proper expense. The plaintiff was awarded $493,000 for the home, bringing her total award up to $5,962,670.36.

Scott Stanley and Elizabeth Emery successfully obtained an order certifying a class action against ICBC on behalf of Accident Victims who allege that ICBC wrongfully took money from their accident benefit accounts and paid this money to the Province of B.C. pursuant to an illegal scheme. Compensation for the Accident Victims and punitive damages were certified as common issues.

Read the Reasons for Judgment in Rorison v. Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, 2022 BCSC 624

Elizabeth Emery acted for the widow of an ICBC claims examiner who had taken his life. Elizabeth was initially successful in obtaining survivor benefits for the widow and her three young children through WorkSafeBC, on the basis that the worker’s suicide was brought about by his employment. The deceased worker had been the primary source of financial support for his family.

The deceased worker’s employer (ICBC) chose to challenge WorkSafeBC’s acceptance of the widow’s claim for survivor benefits, leading to a review before the WorkSafeBC Review Division. The main issue before the Review Division was whether the deceased worker’s employment as a senior claims examiner had aggravated his pre-existing depression, which led to his death. Elizabeth was successful in defeating the employer’s appeal and maintaining survivor benefits for the widow and her children. The Review Division upheld the initial decision of the WorkSafeBC Case Manager, finding that there was evidence of an identifiable series of significant stressors arising out of the worker’s employment and that these stressors were the predominant cause of the aggravation of his pre-existing depression.

The benefits obtained for the widow and her children are worth over $1.5 million.