The defendant in this personal injury claim sought liberty to add two individuals as third parties to the proceeding. On the day of the car accident a number of people attended a party in the bush near Lumby, B.C. The claimant was there and was a pedestrian. The proposed third parties were there and were also pedestrians and the defendant says tried to pull him from the vehicle, causing the accident (2016 BCSC 418) .
Leave was necessary in this application because more than 42 days had passed since the defendant was served with the notice of civil claim: see Supreme Court Civil Rule 3-5(4).
The defendant claimed that there was sufficient indirect evidence to support the allegation that the pedestrians caused the claimant’s injuries. The defendant said that his delay in bringing the application was not inordinate and that what delay there has been is reasonable. The delay was, according to the defendant, a consequence of having to obtain the RCMP file and having to locate and interview the various witnesses who were at the party. Supreme Court Civil Rule 6-2(7) authorizes the court to order that a person be added as a party to a proceeding.
In denying the application the judge stated,
[31] I find that I am not satisfied by the defendant’s explanation for his delay in bringing the application forward…[33] In my opinion the evidence supporting the defendant’s position is scant and unconvincing. It is not sufficient to persuade me that it would be just and convenient to add [the pedestrians] as third parties to the proceeding.
Posted by Personal Injury Lawyer Mr. Renn A. Holness, B.A. LL.B