Court Says Plaintiff Should Have Questioned Hells Angels in Unidentified Motorist Claim
Reasons for judgement were published this week dismissing a Plaintiff’s unidentified motorist ICBC claim finding he failed to take reasonable efforts to follow up on the identify of the unknown motorist with the Hells Angels.
In the recent case (Gorst v. ICBC) the Plaintiff was riding a motorcycle and was passed by a group of bikers travelling in the opposite direction. One of the biker’s entered the plaintiff’s lane causing him to take evasive action leading to his collision and injuries. The biker carried on and remained unidentified.
The Plaintiff sued ICBC under the unidentified motorist provisions. The Court found the unidentified biker was indeed partly liable for the crash but dismissed the claim finding the Plaintiff could have made further inquiries with the bikers as to the identity of the offending motorist. The Plaintiff claimed he was fearful to do so as they were believed to be Hell’s Angels. The Court found that was not a satisfactory excuse and in dismissing this aspect of the claim Mr. Justice Hori provided the following reasons: