The ruling – which was issued on Thursday and published online on Friday – stems from the crash that killed 51-year-old Kim Ward and left her then-48-year-old sister Tracy with “catastrophic injuries”. Anthony Leslie Jonathon Thomas, then 26, was driving a new Jeep Cherokee that belonged to Harris Victoria Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Ltd. but had been given to Aggatha Siah – a family friend of Thomas – pending her financing of the vehicle’s purchase. In March, Thomas was found guilty of the six charges against him, including impaired driving causing death and impaired driving causing bodily harm. His sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 15 and 16. The decision to impose the penalty has not yet been issued. The decision issued Thursday involved a civil proceeding between Tracy Ward and her mother and guardian Ellen Ward, the plaintiffs, and Thomas, Siah and agency, the defendants.

RESPONSIBILITY

BC Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown found that Thomas, as the person driving the vehicle, was responsible for Tracy Ward’s injuries. It also concluded that Siah was not yet the legal owner of the Jeep, which was still owned by the dealership, making the dealership liable for the damages. Harris Victoria tried to argue that Siah was the owner of the Jeep or, alternatively, that he had not consented to Thomas driving the vehicle. Brown rejected both of these arguments, concluding that the motor vehicle purchase agreement relied upon by the dealership as evidence that Siah owned the vehicle was never intended to be a binding agreement. In her ruling, the judge outlined the process that led to Siah signing the agreement, noting that Harris Victoria has a policy that encourages transactions to be completed in a single day, allowing buyers to walk away from the lot with their news vehicles. Sometimes, when financing, registration and insurance cannot be completed in one day, the dealership allows buyers to take their desired vehicles anyway, in the form of an extended test drive. While Harris Victoria argued that the purchase agreement signed by the Co. legally obligated it to pay the full price for the vehicle even if financing could not be secured, employees who testified in the case said the agreement was intended to be only a temporary measure makes it easier to drive from the lot to the jeep. “Harris employees and representatives acknowledged that Ms. Siah would have understood, when she signed the (car purchase agreement), that she would purchase the Jeep only if acceptable financing was arranged,” Brown wrote in her decision. “If Harris is correct that the MVPA constituted a binding agreement, then that agreement is unconscionable and void.”

Likewise, the judge concluded that the dealership’s policy of extended test drives constituted an implied consent that Thomas could drive the vehicle. He noted that Thomas often drove for members of Siah’s family and thus fell into the category of people the company would reasonably expect to drive the Jeep during the trial period. “If Ms. Siah had asked Harris when he got the Jeep or when Mr. Thomas was going to drive the Jeep if a family member who regularly drove the family vehicles to run errands, who was 25 years old, an experienced driver with a full driver’s license, he could drive the Jeep, Harris would say ‘of course,’” Brown wrote. “Harris wants people to drive their cars. It is in their best interest to allow a prospective customer to take a car for an extended test drive, leaving the dealership with the vehicle overnight. The dealership does not place limits on who can drive the vehicle in these circumstances’. That Thomas was operating on little sleep and had taken Xanax and methamphetamine before he got behind the wheel was not something that was apparent to those around him before the crash, and therefore cannot be used retroactively as an excuse to withhold the dealership’s tacit consent . Brown added.

compensation

Most of the $5.49 million in damages for which Thomas and Harris Victoria are liable comes from the cost of future care for Ward, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash and has been living in a long-term care home since her hospitalization ended of the accident. Brown awarded nearly $4 million in damages to cover the costs of future medication, transportation and medical care for Ward. He also ordered the debtors to pay $550,000 for Ward’s loss of future earning capacity, $414,000 in non-monetary damages, $333,235.55 in special damages and $195,600 for income Ward has already lost because of the crash.