Pawnshop founder neither employed nor self-employed at time of accident: arbitrator

A man who claimed to be in the process of establishing a pawnshop when he was injured in a 1999 auto accident is not entitled to receive income replacement benefits or non-earner benefits, an Ontario arbitrator has found.
Joseph Richard Ovila Godard applied for statutory accident benefits from his insurer, York Fire & Casualty Insurance Company, after suffering injuries related to a 1999 motor vehicle accident.
He made a claim for both income replacement benefits and non-earner benefits (York Fire did not object to him claiming for both).
Godard claimed he was “self-employed” at the time of the accident, because he was in the process of establishing his pawnshop eight months prior to his accident.
The income replacement benefit is available under the Ontario Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule to an insured who is employed for at least 26 weeks during the year before an accident. This is determined by looking at the income on a tax return.
“When Mr. Godard was asked on cross-examination whether his tax returns for the 1999 tax year reflected any of the income that he said he made prior to the store officially opening, Mr. Godard replied ‘no comment,'” Arbitrator Elizabeth Nastasi wrote in her decision.
The arbitrator found Godard was neither employed nor self-employed at the time of the accident. “Based on the evidence provided by [Godard] and his witnesses, the business was effectively open and operating sometime between September and December 1999 more than four months post-accident.”
The arbitrator also found Godard was not eligible for non-earner benefits. To be eligible for such payments, the insured must prove his motor vehicle injury resulted in “a complete inability to carry on a normal life.”
And yet, the arbitrator noted, Godard said he was involved in all of the store renovations, set-up and daily business operations despite “working through the pain.”