Mountie pension fight turns on stubbed toe
Another kick at the can ordered in latest court decision
Last Updated: Thursday, October 1, 2009 | 10:15 PM CT
CBC News
A retired RCMP officer who stubbed his toe as a cadet in 1972 is fighting to get a disability pension for arthritis that developed in the injured digit.
For almost five years, David Murray has been before a variety of boards and tribunals arguing that his pension should be augmented. At almost every turn, however, his case has been rejected because Murray stubbed his toe late at night in the RCMP dormitories, long after the day's training exercises.
The toe in question is the big one on Murray's right foot.
However, his latest appeal to the Federal Court went in his favour, allowing Murray another kick at the can.
The court's decision was recently published in legal databases.
According to the judge, Murray's problem began when he was hit in the face during a training exercise. Murray was in a troop of cadets at the Regina RCMP Academy, also known as Depot.
Murray suffered a nosebleed in the exercise. It went away for a bit, but his nose began bleeding again after lights out in the RCMP dormitory.
Worried about making a mess, Murray rushed to the washroom to look after his nose. However, cadets were not allowed to turn on any light after curfew.
Murray "stubbed his toe while running to the restroom in the dark," the federal court judge wrote. Initially, Murray completed medical forms that said the stubbed toe had healed and that it was a trivial matter.
That changed as the officer neared retirement.
"Thirty-two years later," the judge noted, "the applicant submitted a disability claim to the minister of veterans affairs for degenerative arthritis."
Claim dismissed
That claim was rejected because the injury was deemed to be unrelated to the work of an RCMP member or cadet.
While it was possible that the stubbed toe could be linked to arthritis, a review panel concluded Murray was not on duty when it happened.
"The activity he was engaged in was rushing to the bathroom to attend to a nosebleed," according to findings quoted by the judge. "This sort of mishap can happen to anyone, at any time, and in any place. Hitting one's toe on the leg of a bed has nothing to do with RCMP service."
But the federal court judge found that Murray's circumstances were different because of the strict conditions of Depot life.
The judge listed those factors as:
- Murray had to get to a bathroom in a dormitory filled with 60 beds.
- Murray was not allowed to turn on any lights.
- The bathroom was 18 metres away.
- Murray was anxious about making a mess because of the RCMP's "insistence that the dormitory area be kept spotlessly clean."
The judge said Murray's claim should have been more thoroughly evaluated before it was dismissed.
The court ordered that another panel of the Veterans Review and Appeal Board consider Murray's case.
No date was set for that.
The case was heard by a federal court judge from Ottawa who sat in Vancouver. Murray represented himself.
