Guatemalan man’s estate entitled to redress after court says death was linked to work

MONTREAL — Quebec’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the family of a Guatemalan farm worker crushed to death in 2021 trying to repair a flat tire on his employer’s car is entitled to compensation.

The high court ruled in majority 2-1 decision that Ottoniel Lares Batzibal was on the job when he died and his estate should have been compensated.

Previously, an administrative tribunal had denied the claim because they didn’t believe the death fit the criteria of a workplace death.

An administrative judge found that Batzibal was using his employer’s car outside work hours and that his “good intentions” to fix a flat tire were not related to his official duties and therefore did not qualify for death benefits.

A Quebec Superior Court judge then dismissed a request for judicial review. The estate eventually was granted leave to appeal the matter before the Court of Appeal.

In the July 31 ruling, two of the three-judge panel ruled the worker’s death was an occupational injury and the appeal should be allowed.

Justice Julie Dutil found that the administrative tribunal’s definition of workplace accident or death was too narrow as opposed to “a broad and liberal interpretation” as is established by the courts. Dutil wrote the circumstances of the death would have established “a sufficient link between the accident and Mr. Batzibal’s work to conclude that the accident occurred ‘in the course of work.'”

In agreeing with Dutil, Justice Marie-France Bich additionally noted the administrative tribunal did not consider Batzibal’s seasonal agricultural worker status and the fact that he resided at his work or nearby in employer-provided accommodation.

That type of employment gives an employer a certain level of control and “can blur the line between what is strictly private and what is strictly professional, the distinction not being able to be based solely on the fact that the accidental event occurs outside working hours or during them,” Bich wrote.

Chief Justice Manon Savard would have dismissed the appeal.

Based on those opinions, the high court overturned the administrative tribunal decision that had denied the family money and sent the case back to Quebec’s workers health and safety board, the CNESST, to determine compensation.

Batzibal died on July 18, 2021, after becoming trapped under a car in the garage of a fruit and vegetable farm south of Quebec City where he’d worked for several years.

An advocate who had represented the family told The Canadian Press in 2023 the family could have been eligible for up to $100,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 7, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press