In the personal injury case of Reaume v. Rossetto, 2024 BCSC 1430, the Supreme Court of British Columbia awarded double costs the a successful claimant. The claimant was awarded $1,021,953 in damages for personal injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. Subsequently, she sought double costs from the defendants under Rule 9‑1(4) of the Supreme Court Civil Rules, arguing that the defendants unreasonably rejected her formal settlement offer of $362,968 made before the trial.
The claim involved injury to her right shoulder, migraine headaches, a short-duration right hip and right knee injury, post-traumatic stress disorder (“PTSD”), adjustment disorder with anxiety and depression and somatic symptom disorder (“SSD”). The claimant was 23 year old at the time of the collision. She had just finished a diploma in visual arts and was about to embark on a new career as an artist and become a new mother.
The defendants had previously offered to settle for only $146,998.42, which was about one tenth of amount awarded. The court considered whether it was unreasonable for the defendants to reject the offer, especially given that the final judgment was significantly higher than her settlement proposal. The court noted that the claimant had provided expert evidence before trial, indicating that she had been permanently partially disabled due to the accident. The defendants did not present any expert evidence to counter this claim.
Given the substantial difference between the settlement offer and the final judgment, and the lack of contrary evidence from the defendants, the court found that it was unreasonable for the defendants to have rejected the offer. Therefore, Justice Mayer awarded double costs from the date of her formal offer in December 2023 onwards, recognizing the punitive nature of such an award when a reasonable settlement offer is unreasonably refused. See further double costs awarded against ICBC, the auto insurance monopoly.