A car dealership is appealing a decision by the B.C. Supreme Court that awarded $5.5 million to a woman critically injured when a new Jeep struck her on Central Saanich Road in 2018.
Tracey Ann Ward suffered a catastrophic brain injury in the Aug. 27, 2018 crash that killed her sister, massage therapist Kim Ward.
Anthony Thomas was driving the Jeep on Central Saanich Road when he lost consciousness, crossed the centre line and struck the sisters, who were out walking their dogs after having dinner with their mother, Ellen.
Thomas was convicted of impaired driving and dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.
Ellen Ward launched the civil suit in February 2022 against Thomas, the Harris Victoria car dealership and Aggatha Siah, a woman who had signed an agreement to buy the Jeep.
The issue in the civil case was which of the defendants was liable. The court found Thomas was negligent and that the car dealership, as owner of the vehicle, was vicariously liable and responsible for paying $5.5 million for Tracey Ward’s future care.
The B.C. Court of Appeal began hearing the case in Victoria on Monday.
During the civil case, the court heard that Siah went to the dealership on Aug. 18, 2018 and signed an agreement to buy the 2019 Jeep. Harris Victoria applied to a lending company for financing. The financing was not approved that day, but an employee took the plates off Siah’s car and put them on the Jeep. Siah was told she could take the Jeep home until financing was approved, then she could return to the dealership to finalize the document.
Harris Victoria continued to communicate with the lending company for the next nine days. At the end of the ninth day, Thomas was at the home of Siah's partner's mother on Central Saanich Road when he was handed the keys and asked to run an errand.
The judge found that Siah did not own the Jeep because she did not have financing. The young First Nations woman was a weak, vulnerable party in the purchase negotiations and therefore at a disadvantage in the contracting practice, said the judge, who found the transaction was “unconscionable” — a legal term that means unfair — and thus not binding on Siah.
The car dealership is arguing it is not liable because it did not own the car and the contract with Siah had essentially completed.
Darren Williams, the lawyer representing the Wards, maintains the car dealership was the owner of the vehicle because there was no contract.
Ward was in the intensive care unit at Victoria General Hospital for a month after the crash and spent almost a year in hospital.
Paralyzed on her left side, she now lives in a long-term care facility in Sidney.
At the time of the crash, she was 48 and a self-employed bookkeeper.
ldickson@timescolonist.com
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