The case between ICBC and a former Burnaby resident who successfully won a lawsuit over malicious prosecution is heading back to court.
ICBC and two employees in the case are appealing the recent B.C. Supreme Court decision that awarded Danica Arsenovski nearly $400,000 in damages related to car accident in Burnaby in 2000.
ICBC is asking the judgement to be set aside and the action be dismissed and a new trial ordered, according to an appeal notice filed in the B.C. Court of Appeal on March 11.
On March 1, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled in favour of Arsenovski and awarded her nearly $400,000 in damages, including $350,000 in punitive damages and another $30,000 for emotional distress.
The case goes back more than 15 years, not long after Arsenovski and her husband arrived in Canada from the former Yugoslavia. Both in their 50s, Arsenovski didn’t speak English.
The couple was coming home from an English class on Jan. 31, when they were hit by a car while crossing the street at Nelson Avenue and Imperial Street.
After signing an initial statement, the case was referred Gregory Bodin, an adjuster with ICBC’s bodily injury claims investigation team, and John Gould, who was with ICBC’s special investigations unit.
The two men were also named in the lawsuit.
Gould authored a report to Crown counsel recommending Arsenovski be charged with fraud over $5,000, and the couple both be charged with making a false statement.
But the court found there were “significant inaccuracies” in the narrative portion of Gould’s report to Crown, and on the day the trail started in 2001, the charges were stayed.
Asrenovski then sued the defendants for malicious prosecution, claiming ICBC, its adjusters and investigators misstated evidence to support the criminal charges against her.
In her reasons for judgement, Justice Susan Griffin offered a scathing analysis of the conduct of ICBC and the two employees.
Following the recent court decision, Arsenovski’s lawyer revealed that his client was prepared to accept a settlement from ICBC for $10,000 in 2013.
However, the offer was pulled off the table, replaced by a second ICBC offer, which was to dismiss for a waiver of costs.
The two sides went to court in 2014, but a judge sided with ICBC noting the second offer from the Crown corporation cancelled the first offer of $10,000.
NDP MLA Adrian Dix is critical of ICBC’s handling of the case, arguing it should have agreed to the $10,000 settlement offered in 2013.
“They’ve been determined at every turn to waste money on the courts on this case and the consequences are obviously very negative for Mrs. Arsenovski, but also negative for ratepayers,” he told the NOW.
Dix also suggested the case shows there needs to be changes at ICBC, adding ratepayers will be paying the price for the lessons.
“ICBC, which has been blaming customers for some of its own issues over the last number of years, broadly needs to get its act together,” he said.
