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Superior Court Justice Awards Disabled Veterans $4.6 Billion |
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Written by Wire Services
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Friday, 30 December 2005 |
Ontario Superior Court Justice John H. Brockenshire has rendered a decision awarding thousands of disabled veterans, engaged in a class action lawsuit against the federal government, $4.6 B in damages.
The class action lawsuit, brought against the federal government on behalf of thousands of disabled veterans in October 1999, sought redress from the federal government for years of failure to properly administer the personal and other funds of mentally and physically disabled veterans who were deemed incapable of managing their money and as such, their funds were in the care of the federal government. The Auditor General of Canada noted in 1986 that the government had failed to manage these monies effectively and that $83 million had accumulated in the accounts. Veterans in the Class include those from the First World War onwards.
The federal government profited from these veterans as they had the use of the millions of dollars of their personal funds, pensions and allowances which accumulated while the government administered these monies.
Justice Brockenshire's decision deals with the quantification of the total sum of the damages on the basis of earnings, over 85 years, on the principle amount held by the federal government for the Class members - if the monies
had been properly invested.
Key findings in the decision include:
- If the Government had addressed this problem in 1985 after the Auditor General's report, the Government's liability would have been in the neighborhood of $66 Million.
- While the veterans were out their money the Government had the opportunity to invest it. Even if they invested it in a conservative portfolio they would have earned over $2 B.
- The general political consensus revolved around not wanting to see pension money going to distant relatives and strangers and was used as a policy reason for imposing a lapsing provision. Justice Brockenshire concluded that these same considerations would not effect the obligation that the Government took as a trustee without limitations, to manage what was, as long as the veteran was alive, the veteran's property.
- The granting of a total damage award will serve to clarify the extent of the wrong done by the government over a period of 85 years to veterans that had been rendered helpless and incompetent while serving their country in its armed forces.
A lawyer representing the veterans said of the decision, "For over eighty years, thousands of Canadian veterans had no voice. Their own federal government had access to their personal funds, failed to invest them, and failed in their duty as a trustee by not paying them any return on their funds. Forced to sue their own government, these veterans now know what they are owed." |
