Important Cases - Affecting Injured Workers
Type of Court Cases
Stare Decisis – Case Precedence
Categories of Cases
Important Cases - Affecting Injured Workers
I am still working on this section.
So some things may work and some may not.
I am transitioning the sections below to separate webpages
as I created the second menu above, but it does not fully work yet.
I have setup this section of the website to provide a list of all the relevant court cases and other cases
that directly or indirectly involve injured workers in many common law countries.
I have placed the cases in to different categories.
It is important to know these cases and their meaning,
if you are appealing a board decision, or going to a court on your own.
This is especially true in "Common law countries" such as:
Canada, Great Britain, United States, Australia, New Zealand, and others.
These cases will often come from Court but will also come from administrative tribunals.
Such as human rights tribunals and/or workers compensation appeals tribunals.
You may also notice that some cases are repeated in different categories. This is for two reasons. 1. They have multiple categories or issues, and 2. They fit into more than one category.
If you know of other good relevant cases,
please let me know by using the contact page,
or e-mail me at fightwcb@gmail.com.
I will add them here and I will gladly give you full credit for finding the case and providing it to me,
as I did for Lisa and Rob!
Thanks again to them and to you, for all your help to make this website better,
for injured workers, by injured workers!
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Type of Court Cases
Beside each case below, I have further categorize each case as:
Positive Case, Neutral Case, or Negative Case
Each means how the cases affects injured workers.
However, I still strongly recommend you read all cases on a subject regardless of this category. To understand how your case may end up and prepare for any counter arguments. In addition to the status of a case, when a matter is in a Court, I will indicate the type of action/claim.
These are broken down into five categories.
They are Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Appeals, and Judicial Review.
Some of the types of cases vary depending on the Province/Territory or country you live in, but in most cases the content of the decision is still relevant.
This is also in addition to tribunal decisions, such as, workers compensation tribunals, human rights tribunals, and others.
Workers Compensation Tribunal Cases: These are decisions of the workers compensation board (WCB/WSIB/WorkSafe) and/or decisions of the workers compensation appeals tribunals. (WCAT/WSIAT). In addition to workers compensation law the Boards and tribunals can also apply the human rights legislation and the Charter of Rights & Freedoms in their decisions.
Human Rights Tribunal Cases: These are decisions of the State/Provincial/Territorial and Federal Human Rights Tribunals. These specialized tribunals only deal with matters involving the State/Provincial/Territorial and/or Federal human rights legislation. In addition to human rights legislation the tribunals can also apply the Charter of Rights & Freedoms in their decisions.
Civil Court Cases:
These are cases in Court where a party, most cases an injured worker has brought a lawsuit against another party.
Criminal Court Cases:
These are where an injured worker or an employer or other party has been charged with a criminal or quasi criminal offence (Provincial offence).
Constitutional Court Cases:
These are cases where a party, usually an injured worker brings a challenge of a law and/or an action or inaction of a government agency/officer which violated their rights under the Constitution.
Appeals:
This is where a party appeals a tribunal decision to a higher court. This only applies in certain Provinces/Territories/Countries. However, there are several Provinces/Territories in Canada where the legislation allows appeals of tribunal decisions to the provincial court of appeal. I will provide the list soon.
Judicial Review:
This is where a part makes an application for a higher court for something to be done.
Note: In Canada, according to many decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada, it is not lawful for a Provincial Legislature to prevent Judicial Review.
Even though, in many Provinces the law states Judicial Review is not allowed.
In Judicial Review there are several types depending on what is needed to be done by the Court.
Injunction:
This is where a party applies to a court to have an action or process stopped. You hear of this when say a construction project is proceeding a a group wants it stopped until it is resolved in Court they can apply for an injunction.
Declaration:
This is where a party applies to a court to have a declaration made about a government and/or government agency action or inaction.
Mandamus:
This is where a party applies to a court to have a government agency and/or officer order to do something. Failure to comply will result in a contempt of court charge against the government officer/staff member.
Certiorari:
This is where a party applies to a court to have a a decision reviewed. If found to be either incorrect or unreasonable it will either be sent back to the tribunal to be reheard or the court may decide, in place of the Tribunals decision, rather than sending it back.
This is the most common of the judicial review applications, especially in matters involving workers compensation. It is sort of like appealing a decision, but not really.
In Canada, according to the NEW standards set by the Supreme Court of Canada in Canada v. Vavilov, there are two standards for reviewing decisions. The first is correctness, whether the decision is correct or not. The second is reasonableness, whether the decision was reasonable. Meaning the decision can be wrong, but if it was reasonable it will not be review/reversed. The Supreme Court of Canada also stated that the default standard is reasonableness.
I will explain the two standards of review in more detail when I have more time and in another section of the website. When I do, I will reference it here. For now, I just want you to have a basic understanding of the different cases and types of judicial review.
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Stare Decisis – Case Precedence
When looking at caselaw there is something referred to as principle of stare decisis .This requires that judges follow the previous rulings (i.e. precedents) of other judges in higher courts in their province or territory and the Supreme Court of Canada on the same issue.
However, this is extremely problematic as the workers compensation boards and tribunals will say we do not follow that as we decided matters on a case by case basis. They would be somewhat right. As most workers compensation laws do say that. However, they cannot veer completely away from it. They would have to provide a very strong reason not to follow the decision in a prior case.
Now this is different in dealing with matters from the higher appellate courts. So, for example, a decision regarding judicial review from the Superior Court/Court of Queen’s Bench/Supreme Court the Tribunals would have to follow. Also, a decision of the Provincial/Territorial appellate court and of course the Supreme Court of Canada.
Additionally there is a catch to this, decision makers from one Province/Territory do not have to follow decisions from other Provinces/Territories. The exception of course is decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada - they hold supreme over Canada! Now decisions from one Province/Territory can influence the decision maker in another Province/Territory.
So, for example, if a WCAT in BC receives a decision from a Manitoba WCAT they could take it under advisement but do not have to follow. However, the BC WCAT would have to follow a decision from the Supreme Court of BC, the Court of Appeal for BC and of Course the Supreme Court of Canada.
This is also the case for a Country’s Supreme Court.
While a Court/Tribunal in one country, does not have to follow another Country’s Supreme Court decision they can take it under advisement.
As a point it never hurts to reference a case from outside of your Province/State/Territory, or Country but
DO NOT make your case on it!
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Categories of Cases
Accommodating DisabilitiesLawson v. WSIB (ON WCB) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal
Frankson v. WSIB (ON WCB) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal
Applications for Judicial Review
Presumption of Injury Because of a Workplace Accident
Fraser Health Authority v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (BC - WCAT) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the Supreme Court of Canada
Decision issued by the Court of Appeal for British Columbia
Decision issued by Supreme Court of British Columbia - Judicial Review
20168122 (Re), 2016 CanLII 88896 (NB WCAT) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the New Brunswick Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal
20167949 (Re), 2016 CanLII 54508 (NB WCAT) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the New Brunswick Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal
VSL Canada Ltd. v. WHSCC (NB WCB) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the New Brunswick Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal
Individual Suing a WCB in Civil Court
Taylor v. the WSIB & the WSIAT (ON WCB & WCAT) - Negative Case
Decisions issued by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Onatrio Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court Canada
Shuchuk v. Wolfert & Alberta WCB - (AB WCB) - Positive Case
Decisions issued by the Alberta Court of Queens Bench, Alberta Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court Canada
Goodwin v. WHSCC (NB WCB) - Negative Case
Decision issued by the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench
Steinnagel v. WHCS and The WSIB (ON WCB) - Still Ongoing
Decision issued by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Group Suing a WCB/WSIB/WorkSafe and/or WCAT/WSIAT in Civil Court - Class Action
??? v. Workplace Safety & Insurance Board - WSIB (Ontario WCB) - Status Unknown
Castrillo v. Workplace Safety and Insurance Board - WSIB (Ontario WCB) - Postive Case
Decisions issued by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal for Ontario
Subjective vs Objective Findings
Cima v. Workers Compensation Appeals Tribunal (BC WCAT) - Positive Case
Decision issued by the Supreme Court of British Columbia
Constitutionality of the WCB/WSIB/WorkSafe Laws
Plesner v. British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority - Postive Case
Decision issued by the BC Supreme Court - Judicial Review
I am still working on this page. This is as far as I got with the cases, for now.
Supreme Court of Canada decisions
Right to Sue Third Party
Employee Waiver of Right to Sue Not Valid
Retroactivity of Workers Compensation Tribunal's Decision
Marine Law versus Workers Compensation Law
Wrongful Conviction of Workers for Allegded Fraud
Other than Prescriptions
Institutional Delays within the Workers Compensation System
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