Insurer Found Vicariously Liable for Adjuster Selling Client Information

B.C.’s public auto insurer has been held vicariously liable for a privacy breach, in which one of its claims adjusters sold client information to a third party that ultimately led to arson and shooting attacks.

‘Between April 2011 and January 2012, houses and vehicles belonging to 13 individuals were targeted in arson and shooting attacks,’ the Aug. 24 decision of the Supreme Court of B.C. read.

‘The only thing the victims of those attacks had in common was that their vehicles had at some point been parked in the parking lot of the Justice Institute of British Columbia."

‘Subsequent investigation revealed that they were among a larger group of ICBC customers whose personal information had been accessed and sold to a third party by an ICBC claims adjuster.’

B.C.’s Supreme Court ruled last Wednesday on the class action lawsuit launched by the people whose personal information was improperly accessed by the adjuster, including the victims of the attacks.