SGI denies death benefits for mother of Sask. man who died after violent traffic stop

The family of a Prince Albert man whose violent arrest was captured on video says he was left brain dead. He later died in hospital.

The mother of a Prince Albert man who died after a violent confrontation with police from inside a vehicle has had her application for SGI death benefits rejected.

Boden Umpherville was a passenger inside a 2010 Dodge Avenger stopped by Prince Albert police in the early morning of April 1, 2023. Officers tried to arrest Umpherville. The 40-year-old was repeatedly electrocuted by Tasers and suffered significant blunt force trauma from repeated strikes by police batons.

At one point, Umpherville made it into the driver’s seat amid the onslaught of Taser shocks and police clubs. The vehicle lurched forward, striking a police cruiser. This shocking moment was captured on cell phone video and later shared online.

Umpherville was unconscious when police pulled him from the vehicle to complete their arrest. He never regained consciousness and died in hospital less than a month later, when the family opted to remove the brain-dead father of five from life support.

Saskatchewan’s civilian police watchdog later cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in his death.

As the executor of Umpherville’s estate, his mother Verna Umpherville applied for SGI death benefits under the no fault provisions of the Automobile Accident Insurance Act but was denied.

In a December 2023 decision letter, SGI said the death was unrelated to the motor vehicle accident.

“Our review of the information on file concluded that Boden died of his ongoing coma due to an anoxic injury and global cerebral ischemia due to his cardiac arrest and not the motor vehicle accident,” the letter said.

“After medical review, it was determined that it is more likely than not that Boden’s cardiac arrest and subsequent coma is unrelated to the motor vehicle accident.”

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Last month, after a failed bid to the province’s insurance appeal commission, Verna turned to Saskatchewan’s highest court seeking to have the decision overturned.

In a June 27 written decision from Justice Jerome Tholl, the court rejected her case for death benefits.

The court sided with the appeal commission’s decision on the matter, that it was the police assault that caused his arrest, and not the use of the vehicle.

“There is no nexus or causal relationship between the Deceased’s injuries and the use or operation of the motor vehicle,” the commission wrote.

“The conduct of the police in using batons and tasers on the Deceased, at the time of his arrest, caused the Deceased’s injuries. The use or operation of the motor vehicle was merely incidental or fortuitous to the injuries sustained by the Deceased.”

The commission maintains the death benefit provisions in the insurance act are meant to cover fatal injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents, “not injuries sustained while being arrested by the police.”

Saskatchewan’s appeal court agrees.

“The use of the car did not cause his injuries; it was the force used by the police in effecting the arrest, along with [Umpherville’s] role in the melee, that did so,” Justice Tholl writes.

“The connection is too tenuous.”

You can read the full decision here.