Toronto, Ontario — July 17, 2018 — A court of appeals in Ohio has upheld a decision that found a bodyshop responsible for $100,000 of injury damages after a sedan was deemed to have been improperly repaired.
In a unanimous verdict, the First District Appellate Court decision in favour of the driver adds a significant amount of weight to the legal opinion that bodyshops are liable for damages in cases where they have not followed OEM procedures.
The case, Williams v. Sharon Woods Collision, began in 2012, when a 2010 Nissan Maxima recieved repairs from the appellate’s facility, which has since come under new ownership.
The judges wrote in their decision that the facility, which advertised that services would be performed by technicians familiar with OEM procedures, “used structural bonding adhesive to attach panels to the car, a method which was not approved by the manufacturer or appropriate under I-CAR guidelines.”
While U.S. legal decisions have no bearing on Canadian law, their findings can be mentioned in court. As such, the news may be well received by Canadian repairers in Western Canada.
There, one major insurer has recently been accused of refusing to fully reimburse repairers for OEM mandated scanning procedures.
According to anonymous sources who approached CRM, the insurance official responsible for the policy change is alleged to have described OEM mandated scanning procedures as “a scam.” CRM is withholding further information about the accusation until the matter has been fully investigated.
