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Tag: Desharnais v. Parkhurst and Romaowski

A Balanced Costs Award Following Jury Trial

Written by admin on . Posted in BC Supreme Court Costs Cases, BCSC Civil Rule 9, Uncategorized. 51 Comments on A Balanced Costs Award Following Jury Trial

In an illustration that not all trial ‘losses’ trigger catastrophic costs consequences, reasons for judgement were released today by the BC Supreme Court, New Westminster Registry, ordering balanced costs consequences.
In this week’s case (Desharnais v. Parkhurst) the Plaintiff was involved in two vehicle collisions.   Prior to trial the Defendants provided two formal offers, the first at $50,000 the second at $75,000.  The Plaintiff, who was seeking in excess of $1 million rejected both offers and proeeded to trial.  Following a thirteen day jury trial the Plaintiff’s damages were ultimately assessed at $30,100.
Both parties had medical evidence to justify their respective positions, however, the Court noted, some of the opinions of the Plaintiff’s experts were “highly suspect”.
The Defendants sought substantial costs having bested their formal settlement offers. The Court noted a more appropriate result would be to award the Plaintiff costs up to the date of the second formal offer and to have the parties bear their own costs thereafter.  While such an order still has significant financial consequences for the Plaintiff it is far less sever than ordering payment of the Defendant’s costs. In reaching this decision Mr.Justice Saunders provided the following reasons:
[42]         On the whole, I do not consider either the First or the Second Offer as having reflected, objectively speaking, a genuine attempt at compromise. I find them to hae been more reflective of what the Applicants could reasonably have hoped to achieve if all or substantially all of the issues were resolved in their favour. I am not dissuaded from taking this view by the fact that the jury awarded even a lesser amount; I do not think it is unfair to counsel or to the jury for me to say that the jury’s decision was considerably less than what reasonably prudent counsel would have regarded as a “win” for the defence. I cannot find that either offer ought reasonably to have been accepted by the plaintiff.
[43]         As Goepel J. stated in Ward, that is the beginning, not the end of the analysis. The most basic principle underpinning the Rules relating to costs is that costs of a proceeding are to be awarded to the successful party (R. 14-1(9)). This expectation is intended to promote sensible conduct throughout court proceeding; it exists notwithstanding the broad judicial discretion to depart from the principle, which is generously built into the Rules.
[44]         In this case, the jury found that the plaintiff had successfully proven some damage. But for the offers to settle, he would be entitled to his costs. Having regard to the factors set out in Rule 9-1(6), including giving some weight to the plaintiff’s financial circumstances, I do not find that the offers were so substantial that the Applicants ought to be entitled to any indemnification against their own costs. The plaintiff’s position was not completely lacking in merit. It was not frivolous. However, the fact that the settlement offers exceeded the judgment amount cannot be ignored. The Applicants were forced to incur the expense of a trial which they were willing to avoid by paying the plaintiff a not insubstantial sum, a sum which ended up being considerably greater than the damages the plaintiff was judged to be entitled to. It would be unfair to require the Applicants to indemnify the plaintiff for the costs of advancing a claim that was ultimately judged to be greatly overvalued.
[45]         I find that the plaintiff is entitled to his costs up to the date of delivery of the Second Offer. The parties will bear their own costs thereafter.
 
 

Clinical Records Admitted Without Authentication? – No Harm No Foul Says BC Court of Appeal

Written by admin on . Posted in Civil Procedure, Uncategorized.


Reasons for judgement were released last week by the BC Court of Appeal addressing, among other topics, whether a new trial should be ordered after clinical records were introduced to a jury without proper authentication.
In last week’s case (Desharnais v. Parkhurst and Romanowski) the Plaintiff was injured in two motor vehicle collisions.  He sought substantial damages as a result but a jury rejected much of his claim awarding $31,000 in damages.  The Plaintiff appealed arguing multiple errors were made at the trial level with the most significant, presumably  being the introduction of various clinical records without proper authentication.  The BC Court of Appeal held that while this was a clear error no harm was done and dismissed the appeal.   The Court provided the following reasons:
[93]         Accordingly, the records could be admitted for the truth of the fact that the statements were made, if the records were kept as part of the counsellor’s ordinary course of business, and were recorded within a reasonable time of the conversation with the plaintiff.  Similar, though not identical, considerations would be made under Ares.
[94]         There was no clear evidence of these conditions having been met.  Normally, the preconditions would be dispensed with by using a document agreement or securing admissions through a Notice to Admit.  I have not been able to find anything in the record to suggest that formal proof was dispensed with.  Rather, in this case the plaintiff objected to their admission.
[95]         In those circumstances, it seems to me that counsel seeking to admit the records as business records under common law or statute would have to tender proof of the preconditions for admissibility:  Cunningham v. Slubowski, 2003 BCSC 1854.  This was not done here. 
[96]         Accordingly, I agree with the plaintiff that the trial judge erred in concluding that the records were admissible without first concluding that there was proof of the preconditions under common law or statute.  Plaintiff’s counsel disputed that the records qualified as business records.  Even if there were little or no substance to his position, the effect of his objection was to require the defence to lead the evidence to comply with the pre-conditions for admissibility.
[97]         Having reviewed the appeal record, however, I do not see this error as sufficient to warrant intervention from this Court.  Had the records not been admitted, the information contained in them would have nonetheless been placed before the jury, as the content of the records was summarized in the report of the plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Rami Nader.  Dr. Nader’s summary of the records included that the plaintiff complained about stress stemming from his relationship with two women and that he suffered a back injury following the accident in his driveway.  Plaintiff’s counsel had the report admitted and sought no limiting instruction on the use of the report.
[98]         Further, the trial judge’s instruction that the records were an example of a prior inconsistent statement was one of several prior inconsistent statements made by the plaintiff.  The trial judge also pointed out inconsistent statements made under oath.  The plaintiff’s own counsel referred to the plaintiff as “a poor historian” in his closing submissions.  On the whole, it seems unlikely that the assessment of the plaintiff’s credibility was significantly influenced by the statements in the records.
[99]         The jury was also unlikely, given the amount of medical evidence, to place much weight on the records suggestion that the plaintiff was symptomatic before the first and second accident.  Further, this information was before the jury by virtue of the plaintiff’s expert’s report.
[100]     Based on the above, I do not see this error as warranting intervention from this Court.