High Court: No Negligence Suits against WorkSafeBC for Workers’ Comp Denials

A helicopter factory technician collected workers’ comp after hurting his back at work. But the Board cut off his benefits after finding his degenerative disc to be a preexisting condition that the work incident didn’t aggravate. Having exhausted his appeals options, the technician sued the Board for negligently mishandling his claim. Although the strategy was creative, it was a legal non-starter. The Board has exclusive jurisdiction to determine if injuries are work-related under workers’ comp and is immune from civil lawsuits for money damages, ruled the BC Court of Appeal [Gill v. WorkSafeBC, 2017 BCCA 239 (CanLII), June 15, 2017].