Cole v. Smith

Cole v. Smith

Liability was admitted; the court accepted medical and vocational evidence of permanent limitations, rejected taking family-company payments at face value but used statistical earnings data to fix pre-accident earning level, applied judged contingencies to past and future earnings, and awarded damages totaling...

Source-derived case information.

Citation
2002 BCSC 1235
Parties
Plaintiff: Lesley Cole; Defendant: Christopher Derek Smith
Court
Supreme Court of British Columbia
Jurisdiction
Canada
Judgment Date
21 August 2002
Procedural Posture
Motor Vehicle Negligence / Personal Injury / Judgment Assessment of Damages (trial Concluded)
Outcome
Judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $460,867
Legal Topics
Non Pecuniary Damages, Past Loss of Income, Future Earning Capacity, Loss of Housekeeping Capacity, Future Care Costs, Special Damages, Income Splitting, Contingency Discounts
Source Language
english
Torts Personal Injury Insurance Law Civil Procedure Non Pecuniary Damages Past Loss of Income Future Earning Capacity Loss of Housekeeping Capacity +4 more

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Summary, issues, holding and outcome

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Parties

Lesley Cole

Plaintiff

Christopher Derek Smith

Defendant

Procedural Posture

Motor Vehicle Negligence / Personal Injury / Judgment Assessment of Damages (trial Concluded)

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Quantification of non-pecuniary damages
  2. 2 Valuation of past loss of income where employment was with spouse's business
  3. 3 Assessment of loss of future earning capacity and appropriate contingency discounts

Ratio Decidendi

Liability was admitted; the court accepted medical and vocational evidence of permanent limitations, rejected taking family-company payments at face value but used statistical earnings data to fix pre-accident earning level, applied judged contingencies to past and future earnings, and awarded damages totaling $460,867 composed of specified sums for non-pecuniary loss, past and future income loss, housekeeping, future care and special damages.

Court Disposition

Judgment for plaintiff in the amount of $460,867

Orders

  • Award non-pecuniary damages $125000
  • Award past loss of income $78720