"I'm Going To Sue You" Probably Not the Best Thing to Yell After a Crash
If the first thing out of a person’s mouth following a fender bender is “I’m going to sue” that likely won’t reflect all that well in a subsequent lawsuit. Reasons for judgement were released this week by the BC Supreme Court, Vancouver Registry, addressing the issue of credibility and claims consciousness after such an utterance was made.
In this week’s case (Hussainyar v. Miller) the Plaintiff was involved in a 2009 collision. It was a relatively minor accident. He suffered legitimate injuries and ultimately was awarded damages. Prior to doing so, however, the court had some critical comments to make about the Plaintiff’s credibility which were made in part due to his post collision behaviour.
Immediately following the crash the Plaintiff and his passenger exited the vehicle, walked towards the defendant and “yelled at her that they were injured and it was her fault and they were going to take her to court“.
Madam Justice Allan provided the following comments about the Plaintiff’s credibility:
[34] Mr. Hussainyar denied making an angry outburst at the scene of the accident that he and his girlfriend were injured and that it was the defendant’s fault and he would take her to court. I have no hesitation accepting Ms. Miller’s evidence that it occurred. That incident, illustrating the plaintiff’s focus on compensation, forms the context for an examination of Mr. Hussainyar’s credibility. He was dishonest with Dr. Cimolai, Dr. Chu, and Mr. Brancati when he told them that his employer had gone out of business and omitted to tell them that he had been working part time for months. I do not accept his evidence that he attended the gym on more occasions than his scanned entry card indicated. Although he told Dr. Chu he could perform household chores, he testified that was a continuing problem. Dr. Turnbull noted that the plaintiff’s range of motion was better when he was distracted…