ICBC apologizes to accident victim in class action lawsuit

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ICBC has apologized to one of the representative plaintiffs involved in a $900 million class action lawsuit filed against the auto insurer.

In March 2020, a lawsuit filed by representative plaintiffs Brayden Methot and Robert Rorison alleged that the B.C. government had engaged in an illegal scheme to divert hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars, resulting in losses to benefits for accident victims and driving up insurance rates for B.C. drivers.

Methot, the plaintiff for the accident victim class, was left a quadriplegic after being injured in a motor vehicle accident on June 9, 2014, near Kamloops. He was a passenger in a vehicle that crossed the centre line and struck an oncoming vehicle.

Methot, who was 24 years old at the time of the collision that left him unable to work and in need of care, became eligible to receive accident benefits, and did receive benefits, as a result of the accident.

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But in April 2015, ICBC advised him through his lawyer that his accident benefit fund had been depleted after having reached the maximum expenditure of $150,000. He later learned, however, that ICBC had diverted the sum of $3,709 to the Medical Services Plan for his physician visits instead of paying the money to him.

After the filing of the class action suit, which alleges that the provincial government routinely raided ICBC’s budget for its own benefit by using ICBC funds to pay for things that ICBC should not have paid for, ICBC sent a letter to Methot’s lawyer, Scott Stanley, apologizing that Methot’s benefits had not been exhausted in April 2015. The letter from an ICBC lawyer admitted that, in error, ICBC had included the payments to the medical practitioners totalling $3,709.

“ICBC apologizes to Mr. Methot for the error in calculating his requested lump sum payout,” says the letter.

ICBC sent him a cheque for the $3,709 but Methot, who intends to proceed with his lawsuit, has not cashed the cheque, according to an affidavit filed by the Williams Lake man.

Court documents filed since the lawsuit began last year also indicate that ICBC is reviewing more than 500 accident benefit files similar in nature to that of Methot to see whether ICBC owes money to any of those claimants. According to an affidavit filed by an ICBC official, once identified, the insurer will write to those individuals regarding reimbursement of any unpaid expenses up to the amount that remains owing out of the coverage limit.

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Robert Rorison, the representative claimant of the ratepayer class, has bought insurance through ICBC since 1973 with premiums going up substantially during that time. He claims that the rate increases are in part due to the alleged illegal scheme and is seeking a declaration that the increased insurance rates amount to an unconstitutional tax.

ICBC, which in court documents filed in response to the class action has denied any illegality, filed an application to have a hearing to determine whether to dismiss Rorison’s part of the class action claims before the certification hearing in the class proceeding.

But in a ruling released in November, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Nathan Smith refused to grant the order that ICBC sought.

The judge, who said he was not making any comment on the validity of the claims in the lawsuit, found that ICBC had not met the onus of establishing a compelling reason or exceptional circumstance that would justify a departure from the general rule that the certification application should be heard first.

The certification hearing is scheduled for three days, beginning April 26, in Vancouver.

kfraser@postmedia.com

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