Dr. Armstrong

The defendants brought a motion for leave to admit an expert report from Dr. Armstrong concerning the plaintiff's life expectancy in a personal injury action.

The court found that while the defendants provided a reasonable explanation for the late delivery of the report and that the plaintiffs were not prejudiced by the delay, the report itself was inadmissible.

The report failed to comply with Rule 53.03(2.1)6 by not providing a methodology or listing all relied-upon documents.

Furthermore, its probative value was deemed very low due to the expert's inappropriate analytical approach (life insurance vs. annuity) and use of general population statistics without proper explanation.

Finally, Dr. Armstrong was not qualified to provide a medical diagnosis as he had not been a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons since 2010.

The motion for leave was dismissed, and the report was ruled inadmissible.

The plaintiffs brought a motion under Rule 7 for approval of a $6,625,000 settlement in a medical negligence action arising from severe birth injuries to the minor plaintiff.

The court approved the overall settlement amount but found the solicitor's proposed contingency fee of over $1.5 million to be unreasonable given the time expended and the results achieved.

The court reduced the legal fees to $1,000,000 and also reduced the proposed allocation of funds to the parents' Family Law Act claims to ensure the minor plaintiff received adequate funds for his lifelong care needs.

The plaintiffs brought a medical negligence action against the defendant obstetrician following the birth of a child who suffered a catastrophic brain injury resulting in severe cerebral palsy.

The injury was caused by an occult cord prolapse during delivery.

The plaintiffs alleged the defendant failed to recognize risk factors, failed to obtain informed consent, and negligently proceeded with a vacuum-assisted delivery in the delivery room rather than the operating room.

The court dismissed the action, finding that the defendant met the standard of care in his assessment of risk factors, obtained valid consent, and appropriately exercised his clinical judgment in proceeding with the vacuum in response to a non-reassuring fetal heart rate.

Furthermore, the court found that the cord prolapse and resulting injury would have occurred regardless of the defendant's interventions.

The accused was found guilty of multiple offences, including aggravated assault, after violently shaking his infant daughter, causing permanent and severe brain damage.

He also assaulted his girlfriend and the infant in a separate incident weeks prior.

The court rejected the application of the Kienapple principle to the assault and choking charges.

The accused was sentenced to a total of 8 years and 4 months imprisonment, with a 1.25 to 1 credit for pre-trial custody, resulting in a net sentence of 5 years going forward.

The appellants appealed the dismissal of their medical malpractice action against a hospital, nurses, and doctors following the birth of a child who suffered severe brain damage due to oxygen deprivation prior to an emergency Caesarean section.

The trial judge dismissed the action, finding that while there were shortfalls in care, the cause of the oxygen deprivation was unknown and therefore not caused by the defendants' negligence.

The Court of Appeal allowed the appeal and ordered a new trial on liability, holding that the trial judge erred in law by deciding the issue of factual causation before determining whether the standard of care was breached, and that the trial judge's reasons were insufficient to explain why the plaintiffs' theory of liability was rejected.

The respondents sued the appellant hospital and several doctors for medical malpractice following the birth of their daughter, who suffered severe brain damage due to asphyxia during labour.

The trial judge dismissed the claims against the doctors but found the hospital vicariously liable for its nurses' failure to properly monitor the fetal heart rate between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m.

The trial judge inferred that proper monitoring would have detected the asphyxia, leading to an expedited delivery that would have spared the child's injuries.

The Court of Appeal allowed the hospital's appeal and ordered a new trial, finding that the trial judge misapplied the law of causation by using a 'robust and pragmatic approach' to infer causation without reviewing and making necessary findings on conflicting expert evidence regarding whether the earlier period of asphyxia was actually detectable by intermittent auscultation.