MAYHEW v WCB

The Defendant, the Worker’s Compensation Board (“WCB”), applied to strike an Amended Statement of Claim pursuant to Rule 3.68 on the basis that it did not disclose a Cause of Action.

The Action arose from allegations that the WCB failed to provide appropriate compensation and treatment in relation to the Plaintiff’s injury, resulting in various losses. The Court advised the Plaintiff that the Statement of Claim failed to plead material facts and granted several adjournments to allow the Plaintiff to seek assistance in correcting this deficiency. Despite having filed several hundred pages of Affidavit evidence and amending the Statement of Claim twice, the Plaintiff still failed to plead the material facts necessary to support a viable cause of action.

Justice Devlin noted the similarity to Gay v Alberta (Workers’ Compensation Board), 2023 ABCA 351 (“Gay”), in which the Court of Appeal upheld a decision to strike a claim on similar grounds advanced by the WCB.

Applying the Rule 3.68 test, Devlin J. struck the Amended Statement of Claim in its entirety. Justice Devlin adopted the Court of Appeal’s reasons in Gay, finding that the claim for WCB compensation was statutorily barred and not actionable in tort, and failed to plead facts supporting any recognized cause of action. The Court further found that the allegations of conspiracy were improper and the claims relating to interference with legal representation were doomed to fail, scandalous, and vexatious.

Justice Devlin granted the Application in full, without further leave to amend.