reasons for judgment<\/a> on May 15.<\/p>\n\u201cI pause to note that some evidence was presented during the trial regarding the political views of the parties and Mr. Gao. The respective political views of the parties and Mr. Gao are not relevant to any of the issues in dispute in this lawsuit,\u201d the judge noted.<\/p>\n
On the day of the incident Gao asked Huang, 51, to go with him to the police station to lodge a complaint about the protesters. Huang drove to Gao\u2019s house and waited in this car while Gao got ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile waiting, Mr. Yin and Mr. Bai asked to speak with the plaintiff in the middle of the road in front of Mr. Gao\u2019s house. Shortly thereafter, the incident occurred, causing the plaintiff to suffer a number of injuries,\u201d Morishita said.<\/p>\n
Yin and Bai were charged with committing assault causing bodily harm, pleaded guilty, and Yin received a seven-month conditional sentence (house arrest), followed by 12 months of probation while Bai received a conditional discharge, with 12 months of probation.<\/p>\n
Morishita described in his reasons how the incident played out. The three men stood face to face \u2013 less than a foot apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn essence, they got into each other\u2019s faces,\u201d the judge observed. \u201cThe plaintiff exhaled cigarette smoke towards Mr. Yin\u2019s face. Almost immediately after the plaintiff exhaled cigarette smoke, Mr. Yin punched the plaintiff in the head\/face area with his right hand and then advanced towards the plaintiff. The first punch could be characterized as a \u2018sucker punch.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe plaintiff backs up almost immediately after being punched,\u201d he continued. \u201cMr. Yin continues to advance and throws and lands two punches on the plaintiff\u2019s face. The plaintiff turns around and continues to walk in the opposite direction. Mr. Yin continues to advance and throws and lands a fourth punch on the back of the plaintiff\u2019s head. The plaintiff continues to walk away from Mr. Yin, who, from behind, puts his right arm around the plaintiff\u2019s neck and chest area and pulls the plaintiff backwards to the ground \u2013 in a wrestling-like move.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Yin gets up, and the plaintiff remains on the ground. Mr. Yin slaps the plaintiff on the top of the plaintiff\u2019s head. Mr. Yin then aggressively kicks the plaintiff with his right foot four times. All four kicks are directed at and land on the plaintiff\u2019s face.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge said from the video footage it was \u201cmore difficult\u201d to see Bai\u2019s actions, as he was at times partly obscured by Huang and Yin.<\/p>\n
\u201dNevertheless, after Mr. Yin\u2019s initial punch, Mr. Bai advances towards the plaintiff alongside Mr. Yin. He appears to throw one or two punches at the plaintiff, but it is not clear whether they make contact. He also appears to assist Mr. Yin in bringing the plaintiff to the ground. Once the plaintiff is on the ground, Mr. Bai throws a punch that appears to be directed at the back or side of the plaintiff\u2019s head, but because of the plaintiff\u2019s movement, it lands on the plaintiff\u2019s chest in more of a glancing blow. Mr. Bai kicks the plaintiff once, around the time that Mr. Yin delivers his third kick. Mr. Bai\u2019s kick strikes the back of the plaintiff\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morishita noted that at no point in the video did Huang try to punch or make any \u201cnon-defensive physical contact\u201d with the defendants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt no point did the plaintiff pose any physical threat to the defendants, nor do I find that the defendants could reasonably believe they were, or would be, under attack by the plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge found Bai and Yin jointly liable for the attack. \u201cWhile Mr. Yin threw more punches and kicks and was primarily responsible for tackling the plaintiff from behind, bringing the plaintiff to the ground, both defendants engaged in a common enterprise to assault and batter the plaintiff, and both threw punches and kicked the plaintiff in a very short period of time for a common purpose,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Morishita divided the liability at 65 per cent Yin, 35 per cent Bai.<\/p>\n
Huang sought $150,000 in non-pecuniary damages, $74,000 in past loss of income earning capacity, $50,000 in future loss of income earning capacity, $632.49 in special damages, $10,000 for cost of future care, $10,000 in aggravated damages and $860.13 in health care costs to a total $295,492.62.<\/p>\n
Morishita awarded Huang, now 57, $100,000 in non-pecuniary damages, $45,182.18 for future loss of income earning capacity, $528.60 in special damages, $10,000 in aggravated damages, and $860.13 in health care costs, to a total of $156,570.91<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A B.C. Supreme Court judge has awarded $156,570.91 in damages in an assault and battery lawsuit related to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[903,49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-680688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}