Film company fights against lawsuit
A film company being sued by actress Gabrielle Carteris is seeking to quash a ruling that allowed her to pursue damages in a B.C. court for injuries she suffered on a film set in Langley.
Carteris, who gained fame playing the character Andrea Zuckerman during the TV show 90210, was the female lead actor in the made-for-tv movie Past Tense.
The Los Angeles-based actress claims she was injured in a scene in February 2006 when she was held in a headlock by a “bad guy” played by actor Adrian Hughes and then dragged down a staircase.
Her lawsuit, naming Central Myth Pictures Ltd. and several others, including Hughes as defendants, was filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
The defendants tried to have the case dealt with by workers’ compensation authorities, but in February, a Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT) found that Carteris was not a worker within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Act.
The WCAT decision cleared the way for the case to proceed in court, but the defendants have now filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court seeking a judicial review of the WCAT ruling.
The petition says that the tribunal erred on either the standards of correctness or reasonableness and seeks an order to quash or set aside the decision.
A trial date for the case in B.C. Supreme Court had been set for October.
A lawyer for Carteris on Wednesday said that the WCAT decision is very well reasoned.
“An appeal brought on so close to trial suggests a tactic to adjourn the trial and add further delay to Gabrielle’s right to close this chapter of her life,” said Robyn Wishart. “If the appeal is advanced, we will fight to give her the right to tell her story.”