Law Case

Law Case

Name of the case: Ekman v. Cook, 2013 BCSC 2027

Date attended: 2013/11/07

Name of the judge hearing the case: The Honourable Mr. Justice G.C. Weatherill

Counsel for the Appellants: K. Gourlay & D. Robertson, A/S

No one appears on behalf of the Respondent: J. W. Joudrey & C. V. Morcom

The Brief Summary of the case: The case of Ekman v. Cook is related with the accident case. Basically, the plaintiff was operating a motorcycle. During the driving, there was a traffic that was ahead of him got slow down. After watching the traffic going slow, he then moved into the oncoming lane to provide the access for the vehicles to pass. At the same point of time, the defendant tried to turn the car onto her leftside. Both the motorists got in a positon that were found to be fault but the plaintiff was shouldering 75% of the blame. During the announcement of the decision by the honoruable judge, Justice Weatherill, he gave the following reasons, which will be explained with the help of following points:

Ms. Cook was very well aware that she was driving slowly as was towing a horse trailer on the path of straight roadway, where the passing was allowed. She did not reject the possibility of passing a vehicle. It was her responsibility to look at the side mirror and carry out a shoulder check in the timely manner before turning the car towards the left side. According to Ms. Henry, she observed the motorcycles wanted to pass from the left hand side of Ms. Cook.

It was also acknowledged during the case both of the plaintiff and Ms. Cook needed to make sure that they must exercise caution during driving. The judge stated that it was the fault of both plaintiff and defendant who failed to exercise the appropriate standard of care. The negligence of both people caused the accident. This is the reason why each party is liable for the accident.

The judge stated that in comparison, plaintiff had a much better chance for assessesing the circumstances well in order to avoid the collision. It was an evident fact that the traffic ahead of him got slowed down. The possibility of the front vehile needs to turn left was also there. In fact, the left turn signal given by the Truck/Trailers' should also have been evident to him. ...