J. Scott Stanley and Tara Chandler represented the Plaintiff who sustained a spinal cord injury when she was struck by a recreation vehicle on private land.  The defendant denied liability, claimed the Plaintiff and/or her spouse were at fault. The trial judge found the defendant 100% liable and assessed damages at $5,369,670 with liberty to make submissions on further heads of damages including adaptive housing, which was an item that was to be awarded to the Plaintiff.

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.

John Cameron acted for JC who sustained injuries to her neck, back and shoulders as well as chronic pain and depression arising from a motor vehicle accident. A dedicated and professional executive assistant, JC tried to continue working with her injuries. However she struggled and was only able to do so with the help of a very accommodating employer. In time she could not continue and in addition to losing her position as an executive assistant she also was not able to pursue her other passions which included dancing and acting in television and motion pictures.

One of the main issues at trial was assessing a fair amount for JC for her injuries and chronic pain. There was also the issue of fair compensation for JC in relation to how her injuries would affect her in the workforce going forward. In the end, the Court accepted Mr. Cameron’s arguments in support of fair compensation for the dramatic changes in JC’s life, health, activities and work abilities after the accident.

The Court ultimately awarded JC over $500,000 in compensation, including damages for loss of earning capacity. The eventual Court award was more than three times the amount of compensation which ICBC had offered prior to the trial.

Read the full decision here.

Stephen Gibson and Alex Sayn-Wittgenstein successfully represented firefighter Aaron Gelowitz who suffered catastrophic injuries when he struck his head on a submerged tree stump after diving from shore into Williamson Lake. Mr. Gelowitz fractured his C6 vertebra and suffered an associated spinal cord injury. The claim alleged that the City of Revelstoke was partially liable for Mr. Gelowitz’s injuries. Among other things, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Sayn-Wittgenstein argued that the city failed to appropriately place and properly maintain signage warning against diving and advising of underwater hazards at the site where the accident occurred. Further, they argued that the city owed a duty of care to park users to warn of hazards associated with the use of park facilities, including hazards associated with water activities in the lake. After weighing the evidence, the court held that the city was negligent in failing to take reasonable steps to protect Mr. Gelowitz’s safety and should have done more. Justice Horsman found the city 35% liable for the injuries. The case is being appealed by the City with a hearing set for the fall of 2022.

Read the case: Gelowitz v. Revelstoke (City), 2022 BCSC 46

Media coverage of the case can be viewed at the links below.

Global News: Revelstoke 35% to blame after firefighter injured in lake dive, court finds

Surrey Now-Leader: Revelstoke found partly responsible in dive that left Surrey firefighter injured: lawsuit

Revelstoke Review: Man suing city, resort after diving incident resulting in serious injury

Infotel: Judge finds Revelstoke partly at blame after tourist seriously injured diving into lake

Canadian Underwriter: The case for tracking your risk advice