Calgary man who planted branch on pole loses compensation | News

A few years ago in B.C. A Calgary man who was impaled on a branch in an ATV accident has lost another bid for compensation.

Tanner Delfs is appealing a 2022 Kelowna judge's decision that ruled the Kootenay brother was not negligent when he took a nine-year-old guest into the woods in 2009.

The BC Court of Appeal upheld Justice F. Matthew Kirchner's decision in a ruling Friday.

Delfs went to visit relatives with his mother. He convinced her to go ATV riding with her relatives.

Delphs was riding a two-seater Polaris Ranger called an RZR with his 15-year-old cousin Josh. Uncle Fred Stricker was a teenage friend on motorcycles and other ATVs.

Delphs was caught in a tree branch when the ATV hit something and came to a sudden stop. The branch entered her under her ribcage on the right side of her body and exited just below her armpit on the left side, Kirchner wrote in the original ruling.

None of the experienced riders recalled seeing any obvious hazards that could have caused the crash, a Kelowna court heard.

“Delphs was taken to Invermere Hospital and then to Calgary Children's Hospital.

Hospital, where he underwent major surgery to remove the branch and repair extensive internal injuries,” Kirchner wrote.

Injuries caused Delph pain after several years.

“Just because an incident happened does not mean it was reckless,” the first judge wrote. “There is no doubt that Mr. Delfs suffered serious and horrific injuries, even though he was not at fault. It's amazing that he survived.''

The appeals court also concluded that the uncle did not breach the standard of care required of a supervising adult, despite Delfs' owner's manual stating that no one under the age of 12 should ride in the car he was riding in.

The trial judge “considered the operator's skill level, experience and maturity to be more important than their age,” the second ruling said. Both judgments noted that all riders were experienced. Delphs was not injured because he was too young, the referees said.

Delphs said the elderly riders should have known there was a lot of debris from the recent storm, but none of the riders saw any danger in the area, Appeals Judge Barbara Fisher wrote in a unanimous three-judge decision.

“This was a terrible accident involving immediate family members,” Fisher wrote. “Tanner suffered a serious injury at a young age that took a toll on him. It is clear from the trial judge's reasons that his conclusion that neither Fred's nor Josh's negligence was a factor in the accident was made after careful consideration of the evidence before him.''