Nova Scotia’s $2,500 cap on minor auto accidents applies to Newfoundland and Labrador residents who had been injured in a Newfoundland and Labrador-licensed bus that crashed whereas it was travelling in Nova Scotia.
The Court docket of Enchantment of Newfoundland and Labrador thus settled a dispute arising from a battle of regulation between two jurisdictions; particularly, Nova Scotia had a cap on minor auto accidents on the time of the crash, whereas Newfoundland and Labrador didn’t. And so, did Nova Scotia’s cap apply to the Newfoundland and Labrador’s auto legal responsibility court docket award?
“Each court docket should assess damages, and there’s no materials distinction between courts in Newfoundland and Labrador and courts in Nova Scotia as to how the assessments shall be carried out, it’s merely that the extent of the substantive proper in Nova Scotia is extra restricted than in Newfoundland and Labrador,” the Court docket of Enchantment present in a ruling launched Monday.
“The [trial] decide failed to acknowledge {that a} limitation on the quantity of a damages award is solely a limitation on a substantive proper, and never a procedural regulation…”
In Hillyer v. Tilley, the claimants had been passengers in a bus pushed by Victor Hillyer and owned by Parsons and Sons Transportation Ltd. The bus collided with a bridge close to Antigonish, Nova Scotia, on March 13, 2005. The claimants sought compensation for accidents they sustained within the crash.
Though the crash occurred in Nova Scotia, Hillyer and the bus passengers are all Newfoundland and Labrador residents and the bus was licensed in Newfoundland and Labrador, the place the claimants launched a court docket motion in opposition to the driving force and the bus firm.
The court docket’s query was: Ought to the $2,500 minor damage cap in Nova Scotia, the place the crash occurred, apply to litigation in Newfoundland and Labrador?
The reply turned as to whether Nova Scotia’s minor damage cap is a substantive regulation or procedural.
Initially, a trial decide discovered Nova Scotia’s minor damage cap was a procedural regulation, not a substantive one. Subsequently, the courts in Newfoundland and Labrador weren’t obliged to observe Nova Scotia’s procedural regulation when calculating non-pecuniary harm awards.
The Court docket of Enchantment in Newfoundland and Labrador reversed that call.
“On this case, the [trial] decide dominated that the discussion board court docket determines the right way to assess the [claimants’] damages,” the Court docket of Enchantment wrote in its resolution. “This ruling implies that he regarded the Nova Scotia cap as a procedural rule respecting how damages could be assessed in Nova Scotia courts, and as such, it might haven’t any utility to litigation going down in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“This was an error. The Nova Scotia cap is a substantive regulation that focuses on the extent of the [claimants’] rights to damages.”
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The Newfoundland and Labrador Court docket of Enchantment ruling goes into nice element concerning the distinction between substantial legal guidelines — which apply throughout all provinces, regardless of the place an accident takes place — and procedural legal guidelines, which apply solely to the jurisdictions the place the litigation takes place.
“The provision of a damages award is the substantive proper of an injured plaintiff,” the Court docket of Enchantment of Newfoundland and Labrador dominated. “Limiting the provision of such an award to a specific amount impacts the injured individual’s substantive proper, however it doesn’t have an effect on how the quantity is calculated [i.e., as in procedural law].”
The appellate court docket goes on to clarify: “The method of figuring out the quantity of a non-pecuniary damages award in Nova Scotia is identical as it’s in Newfoundland and Labrador: the distinction isn’t within the process, it’s within the extent of the quantity that may be awarded.
“Whether or not the quantity of a damages award is $2,500, $25,000, or $250,000, the willpower nonetheless includes the appliance of regulation to established details to find out the extent of an injured individual’s proper in [substantive] regulation.”
Characteristic picture courtesy of iStock.com/rusak
