Appeal court dismisses case of mother seeking SGI benefits for son's death after violent arrest
Boden Umpherville died a month after Prince Albert police arrested him in 2023
The mother of a Prince Albert man who died after a violent arrest with police has lost her appeal to receive death benefits from Saskatchewan Government Insurance.
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal dismissed Verna Umpherville's case on June 27, ruling that her son's death did not entitle her to no-fault benefits under the Automobile Accident Insurance Act (AAIA).
Verna's son, Boden Umpherville, died of cardiac arrest after sustaining several injuries when Prince Albert police arrested him in April 2023.
The bulk of Boden's injuries, caused by police batons and tasers, happened when he was inside a stationary vehicle. During the arrest, Boden moved into the driver's seat and shifted the vehicle into gear, lurching it forward into a police car, which sustained minor damage.
The 40-year-old remained on life support for several weeks before he died on April 26.
"Collectively we're shocked," said Chase Sinclair, a spokesperson for the family. "There are two sides to the story and the narrative is blown way out of proportion by the media and then blown way out of proportion by the police."
After an investigation into the arrest, the Saskatchewan's Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT), the province's police oversight agency, stated that the officers' use of force was justified in light of Boden's resistance. It found that Boden had died as a result of cardiac arrest and cocaine intoxication.
According to the autopsy, it's possible that the stun guns used by police officers could have played a role in his death, but that was unlikely.
The fact that her son was in the driver's seat of a vehicle during the arrest was central to Verna Umpherville's argument for no-fault death benefits, which are provided for injuries that arise out of an accident caused by a motor vehicle. Her legal team argued that Boden's death was applicable under Part VIII of the Automobile Accident Insurance Act.
SGI rejected those claims, stating that in light of the autopsy, "Boden's cardiac arrest and subsequent coma is unrelated to the motor vehicle accident."
Verna appealed SGI's decision to the Automobile Insurance Appeal Commission, which ruled in favour of SGI.
"The purpose of the legislative scheme," said the Commission in the ruling about the AAIA, is to provide "a wide scope for no fault benefits but limits their availability to injuries that are truly caused by the use of a motor vehicle as opposed to those having a more remote connection."
Verna then appealed the commission's decision at the Court of Appeal. It dismissed the appeal on June 27.
Sinclair said the process of gathering documents and interacting with police officials over the last two years has been difficult and frustrating. Boden's Indigenous identity, he said, made the process more difficult.
"I hope that this changes for the next person that gets killed. That there's a clear pathway to a solution-based thing for Indigenous people, that there's a clear pathway to hold people accountable," Sinclair said.
Sinclair said Verna's legal team is now weighing their options for next steps, and has not ruled out appealing up to the Supreme Court.
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