SURREY - If you've been waiting to hear the details of a controversial 2010 traffic crash involving Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts get hashed out in court, don't hold your breath. There won't be a trial. "It's gone," said Watts' lawyer, Scott B. Stewart, refusing to reveal why, citing confidentiality issues.
"It's a general condition of civil litigation." Shawnene Marie Redekopp filed her civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, in December 2010, naming Dianne Lynn Watts, Brian Lavern Watts and Envision Leasing Ltd as the defendants. The litigation had to do with a traffic crash in South Surrey on April 23, 2010, in which both the mayor and Redekopp were injured. Both parties claimed the other was to blame.
According to Vancouver's B.C. Supreme Court registry, the case was adjourned last year, twice this year, and then set for a seven-day trial for Feb. 2 2015, but that has also been cancelled. The mayor would most certainly have been called on to testify. Redekopp could not be reached for comment.
"It's been resolved," her lawyer, Christopher R. Bacon, noted of her civil claim. But as for the details, Bacon told the Now, "We're not entitled to say." Watts said Redekopp launched her civil action after the Insurance Corporation of B.C. "ruled in favour of myself." "That's her claim with ICBC," Watts said.
"There's nothing to comment on. It has nothing to do with me settling with them," she said of Redekopp's court case being stopped.
The late-night crash happened at the intersection of 24th Avenue and 128th Street in Surrey. Watts, who had been driving, suffered a cracked rib and she and her husband Brian, who was in the passenger seat, both sustained soft tissue injuries. Redekopp suffered a fractured clavicle and ribs and injuries to her head, neck, back, abdomen, lungs, knee, spleen and pancreas. tzytaruk@thenownewspaper.com