Burnaby ophthalmologist awarded $6.4 million in Vancouver rear-end collision

A Burnaby eye surgeon has been awarded $6.4 million in damages for injuries she suffered in a car accident seven years ago.

On March 30, 2017, Femida Kherani’s vehicle was stopped at a red light in Kerrisdale, Vancouver. The vehicle was struck from behind by another vehicle owned by Max Da Silva, driven by Keith Rollins, according to a ruling in the British Columbia Supreme Court last week.

Kherani, 52, told the court her head hit the headrest so hard it broke.

Rollins stated that he had the sun in his eyes and did not notice the stationary vehicle in front of him.

Kherani, who runs a clinic at 3994 Hastings St. in Burnaby, sued the owner and the operator, claiming the accident left her with a concussion, frequent migraines and pain in her neck, shoulder, back, hip and knee, which has prevented her from working as an ophthalmologist (plastic surgeon for the eyes).

During a 17-day trial, Da Silva and Rollins did not deny that Kherani was injured in the crash or that the injuries affected her ability to work. They did, however, dispute her claim that surgery on her right shoulder, which she underwent six years after the incident, was related.

Based on the testimony of their experts, the defendants argued that her physically demanding work, her pre-existing injuries and her participation in high-level sports, including volleyball, had caused the shoulder injuries that led to the surgery.

Witnesses to Kherani, including her husband, brother, colleagues and friends, told the court she was “not the same person” after the crash, the ruling said.

Kherani’s expert witnesses testified that the accident caused or significantly aggravated her shoulder injury.

In his ruling, British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Gordon Weatherill said he found the evidence of Kherani’s witnesses reliable and credible, compared to that of some of the experts called by da Silva and Rollins.

As for Kherani’s evidence, Weatherill said the plaintiff is typically the most important witness in a personal injury case and he found Kherani to be a “genuine and honest witness”.

“She didn’t try to embellish her symptoms. If anything, she tended to downplay them,” Weatherill said.

Ultimately, he ruled that the crash was the cause of Kherani’s shoulder injury and awarded her $6.4 million in damages. He calculated that she had lost about $1.2 million in lost work by having to reduce her workload and that she would likely lose about $4.8 million in potential future earnings.

Kherani was also awarded $144,000 in punitive damages, $240,000 for future care costs and $45,000 in special damages.

Da Silva and Rollins gave no evidence about the crash itself. Therefore, Weatherill ruled that the driver, Rollins, was 100 percent at fault and that he and Da Silva were both liable for Kherani’s injuries.

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