Is An Injury Sustained While Clearing Snow Off A Vehicle An "Automobile Accident"?

The Automobile Insurance Act¹ (the "Act") is intended to facilitate the indemnification of victims of road accidents, through a no-fault insurance regime. However, not every mishap in connection with an automobile necessarily constitutes an "accident" as defined in the Act, as the decision in Blackburn v. Vaillancourt² shows.  

I– Facts

While clearing snow from his vehicle, the plaintiff Laval Blackburn ("Blackburn") fell on a patch of ice in the parking area of the defendant Marie-Josée Vaillancourt ("Vaillancourt"). 

Blackburn filed a claim with Quebec's automobile insurance board, the Société d'assurance automobile du Québec, which denied the claim on the grounds that clearing snow from a vehicle is an action in connection with the maintenance of an automobile, and is thus excluded from the Act's definition of "damage caused by an automobile", such that Blackburn's injury was not the result of an "accident" as defined in the Act³.