A provincial court judge has ordered the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia to pay a Mackenzie woman nearly $4,000 because her van was returned to her with items missing, disassembled and replaced with inferior products.
When Linsie Zaworski got into an accident in February 2015, she immediately called ICBC and followed the agent's instructions to remove her personal items and the vehicle's licence plates and leave it where it was.
Vanderhoof-based Giver A Yank Towing subsequently towed the van to P.J. Collision, an auto repair shop in the community 100 kilometres west of Prince George, where it was inspected by a designated ICBC damage estimator, and then towed back to the Giver A Yank yard.
Based on the estimator's inspection and the value ICBC attributed to the vehicle, the van was written off.
But Zaworski wanted to keep the vehicle, in part because it has special features that make it particularly suitable for transporting her disabled child.
After some negotiating, she signed an owner retention agreement under which ICBC would pay her $7,658.57 - the amount she believed would be enough to fix the body damage - and the van was turned over to her.
However, she was not permitted to inspect the vehicle nor told where it was being kept prior to signing the agreement. About a month after the crash, she went to pick up the van only to discover it was not in the same condition. The motor and assembly for the rear wiper had been removed, as had been the jack and accessories, the tires, rims, rotors and brakes had been replaced with versions in poorer condition, and the steering column had been disassembled.
Photos taken of the van during the inspection showed the original parts intact while those taken at the compound after Zaworski complained to ICBC showed they had been taken out.
In determining how much Zaworski should be compensated, judge Shannon Keyes found she should not be entitled to the value of new parts. Instead, she began by taking those values, reducing them by 30 per cent and then considering the parts individually. In the end, Keyes settled on $3,927.18 for those items.
Keyes also charged ICBC a 10-per-cent penalty, ordered the insurer to redeem Zaworski for costs and expenses related to the proceedings and had strong words for the way the insurer handled the case. Other than its argument that Zaworski should not be awarded the value of new parts, Keye's found the other aspects of ICBC's defence to be alternately "absurd" and "utterly baseless."
"Had the trial been limited to the issue of valuation alone, I expect it would have concluded in less than one day, instead of four days," she said.
Keyes also admonished ICBC's lawyer Richard Stewart for suggesting Zaworski was a "skillful thief" who stole items although he lacked a "good faith basis" for the suggestion.
She said Stewart's manner towards Zaworski throughout the trial was condescending and demeaning.
"Whether his disrespectful and insulting treatment of Ms. Zaworski was a stratagem intended to wear down the unrepresented, unsophisticated young mother until she gave up or was simply misogynist, I do not know. Certainly it added unnecessary insult to injury," Keyes said.
As to who scavenged the van, Keyes said she could only speculate but concluded it was ultimately ICBC's responsibility to safeguard the vehicle.
Editor's Note: An earlier online version of this story mistakenly identified another local lawyer as representing ICBC in this matter. The Citizen regrets the error.
