This malpractice injury case(Toch v. Grove) was commenced in Vernon Registry over 13 years before this court application. The professionals being sued were chiropractors who treated the injury claimant. The chiropractic treatments are the subject of the lawsuit . It is now over a dozen years since the chiropractic treatments occurred and this was an application by the chiropractors  for an order that the lawsuit against them be dismissed for want of prosecution for failure to comply with the Rules of Court .
The injury claimants lawyer appeared and told the court  he did not have any instructions from the injury claimant;  he needed to remove himself from the record; and  he had reported the matter to the Law Society. The Court therefore excused the injury lawyer before hearing  the application.
8 years after the claim was commenced the chiropractors applied unsuccessfully to get the claim dismissed. Things lay dormant for another 3.5 years until this court application was finally brought.
Th Court had already found that there was inordinate delay and the delay is inexcusable.  Now,  more than three years since this matter was before Master Hyslop and no steps had been taken by the injury claimant in her litigation. As the Judge went on to state, “Moreover, she has failed to provide a response to the first interrogatories, the second interrogatories, and the third interrogatories. Her lists of documents are incomplete; she has failed to include reports generated by at least nine of her treating physicians. There is no doubt a possibility that the memories of these professionals have faded and their records, given the passage of time, may have been destroyed or lost.”
The Judge found that chiropractors memories of the treatments that they provided over 13 years ago  have faded and they have been prejudiced by the claimant’s delay in diligently pursuing her litigation.  The Judge therefore ordered  that the lawsuit be dismissed for want of prosecution with court costs awarded to the chiropractors. Chiropractors are recognised healthcare providers in British Columbia and have assisted many injury claimants in recovery. Read more about malpractice claims at my website.  Posted by Mr. Renn A. Holness

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post comment