Grewal-Cheema v. Tassone, 2010 BCSC 1182
August 25, 2010- The claimant was injuried when she was waiting in traffic and suddenly rear ended. The other driver admitted fault but ICBC denied the injury claimant suffered injury. The injury claimant was pregnant and her maternity leave ended about one year after her injury. She then took voluntary unpaid leave as she set about a second course of work hardening exercises recommended by her therapist due to her car accident injury . However ICBC refused to pay for this medically recommended treatment. The injury claimant was forced to return to work with lingering physical problems.
The claimant’s personal injury lawyer argued that the opportunity to enjoy being pregnant with her first child had been ruined by the effects of the ICBC insured driver’s negligence. The Judge found that her opportunity to enjoy caring for her newborn baby was in fact ruined by the car accident related injuries. The injury claimant could not attend the child at night as she otherwise would have. She could not pick up the child as she ordinarily would have done. Breastfeeding the child involved having somebody help her.
The court found that the money award must be greater than it would otherwise be because the injury claimant was pregnant and then became a new mother having to deal with the effects of the injury. See my prior post on pregnant ICBC injury claimant’s for more information on the topic of pregnant injury claimant’s. The injury claimant in this case was found to have suffered soft tissue damage which resulted in pain in the cheek bones, the jaw, the wrists, the neck, the upper back, the mid back, the low back, the groin and the abdomen which only really lasted 18 months.
For this relatively minor injury the injury claimant was awarded, amongst other things, $25,000.00 for pain and suffering and $12,000.00 for the temporary loss of her housekeeping and childcare abilities. Posted by Mr. Renn A. Holness
Issue: Should a pregnant injury claimant get more money than other injury claimants with the same injury who are not pregnant?
