Case information

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Torts - Motor vehicles - Personal injury - Damages award - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in holding that the potential for improvement in the Respondent’s symptoms was mere speculation as opposed to a real and substantial possibility - Whether the Court of Appeal erred in its re-assessment of the damages awards for past and future loss of earning capacity by deferring to the factual findings of the trial judge.

This action stems from a motor vehicle accident on December 9, 2001, when the vehicle owned by the Applicant, W & D Logging Co. Ltd., and driven by Mr. Gordon struck the vehicle being driven by the Respondent, Mr. Lines. Liability was admitted at trial. At trial, it was held the Respondent had suffered a permanent brain injury and damages were awarded. On appeal, the Applicants argued that the trial judge had erred in his assessment of damages in two respects: in failing to account for Mr. Lines’ psychological symptoms, the evidence clearly indicating that these symptoms contributed to his disability and were amenable to treatment and improvement; and in awarding sums for lost of past and future earning capacity that were based upon findings of certainty and did not adequately reflect moderating contingencies and were inordinately high. The Court of Appeal dismissed the first issue. With respect to the second issue, the Court of Appeal found that the trial judge had erred in treating Mr. Lines’ ultimate attainment of a trades qualification as a certainty. On appeal, the Applicants had sought a new trial on the basis of this error or in the alternative, that the Court of Appeal re-assess the damages under these heads anew. The Court of Appeal found that it had the power under the Court of Appeal Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 77, to substitute a sum for the one awarded rather than order a new trial.