The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a jury award in an automobile brain injury case, totaling almost $17 million, including $13.9 million for future cost of care.

The case of Marcoccia versus Ford Credit Canada Limited stems from an automobile accident in 2000 involving Robert Marcoccia and Bhupinder Singh Gill, who was driving the truck owned by Ford Credit.

At the time of the accident, the respondent was 20 years old and had just finished grade 12.  He suffered serious injuries to the frontal and temporal lobes of his brain in the accident.  As a result, he suffers from diminished executive functioning, has enduring physical, psychological, behavioural, and emotional impairments that impede his ability to lead a normal life, and cannot be competitively employed in the future. 

Following the six-week long trial in 2008, the jury concluded that the respondent was 39 percent at fault and Gill was 61 percent at fault for the accident.  The jury assessed the respondent’s damages and awarded $312,000 for pain and suffering, over $5,000 for past income loss, over $1.3 million for future income loss, and $13.9 million for future cost of care.

Ford Credit appealed a number of aspects of the jury award, saying that the amounts awarded were wholly unreasonable.

The court disagreed, saying: "In our view, the jury's assessment of damages in this case was not plainly unjust and unreasonable."