05 Oct Judge Dismissed ICBC Claim That Plaintiff’s Cognitive Difficulties Were Part of Aging Process

A 67 year old Plaintiff was involved in a motor vehicle accident (Millar v. Wasden, 2020 BCSC 1210).  He suffered a number of physical injuries in the accident, including a blow to his head which caused a mild traumatic brain injury and issues with cognition.

At trial, medical experts testified that the Plaintiff’s age was relevant because older individuals are more vulnerable to cognitive deficits as a result of a mild traumatic brain injury and those deficits tend to last longer. To the extent the Plaintiff’s cognitive difficulties were more extreme or lasted longer than they might with a younger person, the Defendant remained responsible for such increased and protracted difficulty.

ICBC, on behalf of the Defendant, suggested that the Plaintiff would have suffered the cognitive deficits in any event, due to his age. The judge did not accept this argument because it was inconsistent with the body of medical evidence at trial. This evidence confirmed that the Plaintiff continued to be cognitively impaired on account of his various struggles with mood, sleep, pain and the residual effects of his mild traumatic brain injury.

Furthermore, the judge noted that the Plaintiff’s change in cognitive function following the accident was dramatic. Though he had learned some tools that helped him cope he continued to be cognitively impaired to a significant extent.

At the time of the accident, the Plaintiff was a high functioning professional person of superior innate intelligence who had a better-than-average memory. There was no evidence that the general aging process caused a dramatic or severe deterioration in such individuals. None of the medical experts who examined the Plaintiff were of the opinion that he now suffered from some form of dementia.

The Plaintiff was awarded $848,068 in damages.