The Alberta Court of Appeal recently revisited the question of directors' personal liability for injuries sustained in a workplace incident.
In this case, the defendant was a director of a company which was retained as a subcontractor to perform work in a new home construction. The work included the installation of a temporary staircase. The director was involved in both the supervision and the actual installation of the staircase. The staircase collapsed, injuring the plaintiffs who were workers for another subcontractor also performing work at the house.
The plaintiffs were considered "workers" under the Workers' Compensation Act (Alberta) ("WCA") and both their employer and the director's company were considered "employers" under the WCA. Therefore, both corporations were immune from suit pursuant to the WCA. The Workers' Compensation Board ("WCB") compensated the workers for their injuries and brought a subrogated action against the director in the name of the injured workers, seeking to recover the amounts the WCB had paid to the plaintiffs under the WCA.
The director successfully applied to a Master for summary dismissal of the claim. A Justice in Chambers dismissed the appeal. The plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of the action to the Court of Appeal.
The...
