T-939-76
The Queen in right of Canada (Plaintiff)
v.
Montreal Urban Community Transit Commission
(Defendant)
Trial Division, Decary J.—Montreal, May 8 and
9; Ottawa July 17, 1979.
Jurisdiction — Torts — Right of subrogation — Plaintiff
subrogated, pursuant to Government Employees Compensation
Act, to rights of an employee in an action for damages —
Whether or not plaintiff has right to sue in this Court —
Action dismissed — Government Employees Compensation
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. G-8, s. 8(3).
ACTION.
COUNSEL:
J. Ouellet, Q.C. for plaintiff.
R. Roy for defendant.
SOLICITORS:
Deputy Attorney General of Canada for
plaintiff.
Pépin, Létourneau & Associés, Montreal, for
defendant.
The following is the English version of the
reasons for judgment rendered by
DECARY J.: Plaintiff is subrogated to the rights
of one of her employees for damages alleged to
have been caused by a Montreal Urban Commu
nity Transit Commission bus.
Before deciding on the question of liability, the
Court must decide whether it has jurisdiction to
hear the case at bar.
Plaintiff was subrogated pursuant to section
8(3) of the Government Employees Compensation
Act, R.S.C. 1970, c. G-8, which reads as follows:
s....
(3) If the employee or his dependants elect to claim compen
sation under this Act, Her Majesty shall be subrogated to the
rights of the employee or his dependants and may maintain an
action in his or their names or in the name of Her Majesty
against the person against whom the action lies and any sum
recovered shall be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
As plaintiff's employee exercised the right of
being compensated by the employer, in my opin
ion, under the provisions of section 8(3) the pay
ment of the compensation had the effect of subro-
gating the employer to her employee's rights, but
did not have the effect of creating a right not
possessed by the employee.
The employee never had a right to sue in this
Court, and plaintiff cannot be subrogated to a
right the subrogor did not have.
The action is dismissed with costs.
You are being directed to the most recent version of the statute which may not be the version considered at the time of the judgment.