A B.C. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC) must be held liable for a woman’s “ongoing misery.”
Purportedly, the insurance corporation wrongfully denied 60-year-old Lois Powell’s permanent disability benefits, which later led to her losing her White Rock home and her begrudging move to Victoria to ask help from her children.
Justice Janice Dillon stated the insurance corporation cannot deny Powell her benefits on grounds that she was not receiving them years after the accident.
Powell returned to her job after the Oct. 2010 accident. She was, however, forced to quit her job after a couple of years of constant pain in her back and neck. Powell attempted to apply under ICBC’s “total disability” payments program in 2013, but was rejected because she had not been receiving any benefits on the two-year anniversary of her accident.
“They made my life hell, actually. They denied me everything,” Powel told
Vancouver Sun. “I literally cried for days. I didn’t know what I was going to do. ”
ICBC denied Powell a $300 per week benefits arrangement. The weekly payout, claimed Powell, could have covered for her home expenses.
“I knew I could scrape by on what they paid. I knew that I could keep my townhouse as long as I had that money coming in. When my lawyer told me it was denied, I literally had no idea what I was going to do next,” Powell said. “It meant that I had to sell my townhouse. I had to uproot everything and move to Victoria so my children could help me. I had to leave my friends.”
Justice Dillion discounted the testimony of ICBC’s medical expert and gave more weight to Powell’s two medical providers. The two doctors treated her over several years and verified that she was unable to work due to her chronic pain resulting from her injuries.
This was not the first time ICBC was criticised for its narrow benefits rule. In April, three Court of Appeal justices rejected ICBC’s attempt to overturn a similar ruling in 2014—in which the insurance corporation was ordered to pay permanent disability benefits to Heidi Symons, who had also suffered from chronic pain related to vehicular accident injuries.
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