ICBC ‘sorry’ for suggesting RCMP constable killed by drunk driver was responsible for crash

LANGFORD (NEWS 1130) – ICBC is apologizing after suggesting that an RCMP Constable killed by a drunk driver on Vancouver Island over three years ago was responsible for the crash.

Sarah Beckett was in her police cruiser in Langford in April 2016 when a truck, driven by Kenneth Fenton, rammed into her, killing the 32-year-old mother of two.

Fenton pleaded guilty to impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death, and last year the Attorney General of Canada filed a civil claim against him for damages and expenses for the destruction of the police cruiser.

Kyla Lee, a lawyer from Acumen Law Corporation, says ICBC automatically puts the blame on the person making the claim, which can be harmful.

“Putting the people who are the victims here, innocent victims, and family members of Cst. Beckett who are grieving through the necessity to argue against ICBC’s ridiculous allegations,” she says.

Lee says she sees this as a common litigation tactic, used frequently by ICBC. By default, she says the insurance company will try to avoid paying out a claim to save money by alleging the person involved in an accident was impaired, distracted, or even negligent.

“This is seen in every single one of the pleadings they file in response to every claim that’s made. These are standard pleadings that they file,” she explains.

In a third party response, ICBC initially claimed Beckett’s “negligence” led to the crash pointing to supposed failures on her part.

Lee says the automatic claims aren’t cost-effective either and could result in a plaintiff receiving punitive damages.

“It ends up costing the public more money because more money is funneled into the litigation,” she says. “You end up spending money litigating issues that shouldn’t be issues at all, like who’s responsible for the collision, how this ended up happening, and whether Cst. Beckett played a role in the collision, which we all know is not the case,” she says.

Despite this being a standard practice of ICBC, Lee takes specific issue with the Beckett case, since Fenton was found guilty of the criminal offense causing the accident.

“[ICBC’s] justification for what they’re doing is that they have an obligation to defend any insurance claim,” she says. “But the reality is that in a case like this where he has pleaded guilty, where he has been sentenced, he’s automatically in breach of his insurance policy. So they don’t owe him the defense that would otherwise be owed.”

In order to fix the issues she sees, Lee believes there should be a review of all litigation ICBC is conducting and their positions in all cases.

“To find out how frequently it is that they are taking positions that aren’t purported by the facts and the law and unnecessarily increasing litigations costs through inappropriate tacts,” she says, but adds it is common for insurance companies to use these tactics.

However, she points out ICBC is publically funded and argues they shouldn’t be unnecessarily increasing legal costs.

“We’re deeply sorry,” the insurer said Friday in response to the language used in the legal filing from March in 2018.

“Clearly, the decision to suggest Constable Beckett was liable for this collision in the initial legal documents was a mistake and we are taking immediate steps to fix this error.”

ICBC is now reversing course, saying suggestions the crash was Beckett’s fault was a mistake, and lawyers will now admit Fenton is fully liable for the accident.