A wake-up call has been served to organizations that supervise groups of children following a closely-watched ruling by the Quebec Court of Appeal that appears to have set a higher standard of care while emphasizing that non-pecuniary losses should be evaluated subjectively, without using a pre-established method of calculation or holding judges to be “prisoners of past findings.”
In a 30-page judgment that examined in depth the principles of contractual civil liability, the Quebec Court of Appeal upheld a lower court ruling that awarded the parents of a nine-year old boy who developed a serious neurological disorder following a ski accident $2.4 million in their capacity as tutors for their child’s future losses of income, non-pecuniary losses and management fees as well as $340,000 to the parents in their personal capacity.