Kelowna ski patroller injured in 2014 lift crash continues legal fight for compensation
A Kelowna man is continuing with legal action more than eight years after a ski lift derailed, dropping him to the ground at West Kelowna's Crystal Mountain Resort.
Former volunteer ski patroller Kevin Gourlay has filed yet another civil case against Crystal Mountain Resort, after the resort was recently successful in appealing an earlier decision with the Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal.
Originally Gourlay had been considered an unpaid volunteer by WorkSafeBC, but the Tribunal's decision overturned this and ruled that Gourlay should be classed as a worker instead.
"Given (Gourlay's) role in the operation of Crystal Mountain’s business, my conclusion that (his) primary motive in providing ski patrol services at Crystal Mountain was not to benefit any charitable, civic, or humanitarian aims of Crystal Mountain, my finding that there was an agreement between (Gourlay) and Crystal Mountain under which he agreed to work a minimum number ski patrol shits and Crystal Mountain agreed to make those shifts available to him," the Workers' Compensation Tribunal decision reads. "My finding that he received something of substance from Crystal Mountain in lieu of monetary compensation for his services, I conclude that (Gourlay) was not a volunteer."
On Oct. 20 Gourlay filed again in the B.C. Supreme Court asking to quash the recent Workers' Compensation Appeal Tribunal decision.
The criteria on whether Gourlay should be categorized as a volunteer or a worker has set the case back several years, although it's not immediately clear how this affects Gourlay's fight for compensation following the ski lift incident.
In 2014, the former volunteer ski patroller was one of four people involved in an incident when an empty lift chair crashed into a ski lift tower derailing two other chairs and sending the occupants falling seven metres to the ground.
Gourlay was rushed to hospital in critical condition.
Crystal Mountain Resort closed following the incident and has yet to reopen.
In 2016 Gourlay took legal action against Crystal Mountain Resort but the case became long and complex and ended in the B.C. Court of Appeal.
According to court documents, Gourlay along with his wife Meagan Harvey, who was also involved in the chairlift crash, along with another plaintiff, entered into an agreement with Crystal Mountain in January 2018.
The agreement stated that Crystal Mountain would pay damages, the amount of which would be decided by a judge, following a trial scheduled for August 2019.
The deal stated that the trial would not discuss the issue of liability just how much money should be paid out.
However, just before the trial was scheduled to get underway, Crystal Mountain learnt that WorkSafeBC had denied Gourlay's claim several years earlier on the basis he was a volunteer on the mountain and not paid employee.
Crystal Mountain promptly had the trial adjourned.
The decision from Crystal Mountain to adjourn the trial and argue that Gourlay should be treated as a worker quashed years of legal wrangling.
In 2020 Gourlay filed again in the Supreme Court arguing Crystal Mountain breached an earlier agreement to pay damages by adjourning the trial.
Previous court documents said Gourlay was a volunteer ski patroller and certified commercial diver at the time of the incident. The court documents say Gourlay injured his feet, ankles, left calf and right knee, as well as other injuries and he suffers ongoing chronic pain.
In July 2020 Harvey told iNFOnews.ca she settled the case out of court in September 2019.
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