BC Court of Appeal tosses ICBC appeal of $15K per person for privacy breach

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed a bid by the Insurance Corporation of B.C. to reduce damages awarded in a class-action lawsuit for privacy violations by a former employee that set off "arson and shooting attacks."

The court ruled Wednesday that $15,000 per class member awarded by the lower court was appropriate, rejecting the insurance company's claim that the privacy breaches at issue only warranted "nominal" damages of $500 each.

The lawsuit stemmed from a former employee named Candy Rheaume who accessed customer licence plate information and sold it to criminals who used it to carry out arson and shooting attacks on homes and vehicles owned by 13 people.

The Court of Appeal panel ruled that the "hard-fought" litigation did warrant damages to compensate class members for injuries to their privacy and for the "seriousness" of ICBC's misconduct.

The ruling says the insurance corporation objected to the $15,000 amount because "consequential harm" to individual class members has yet to be proven, and is still before the court to decide.

The ruling says Rheaume got information on 78 policy holders, selling information on 45 of them to "criminals," and earlier rulings in the case say those targeted in the arson and shooting attacks were associated with the Justice Institute of British Columbia.