Is there a compensable impairment of a 20 year old who was injured in a motor vehicle accident when he was 20 and had not settled upon a profession?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Hay v. Hofmann, 1999 BCCA 26 (CanLII):

If the respondent were 20 and had not settled upon a profession, I would say there is a compensable impairment of that asset. In such a case, the questions postulated by Dickson J., as he then was, in Andrews v. Grand & Toy Alta. Ltd., 1978 CanLII 1 (SCC), [1978] 2 S.C.R. 229, [1978] 1 W.W.R. 577, 3 C.C.L.T. 225, 83 D.L.R. (3d) 452, 8 A.R. 182, 19 N.R. 50, speaking of prospective loss of earnings, arise (at 251): We must now gaze more deeply into the crystal ball. What sort of a career would the accident victim have had? What were his prospects and potential prior to the accident? It is not loss of earnings but, rather, loss of earning capacity for which compensation must be made ... A capital asset has been lost: what was its value? [emphasis mine]

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