British Columbia’s court of appeal has ruled that a recent Supreme Court decision regarding the liability of regulatory bodies to the public may change the sorts of cases that can succeed in other provinces.

The case involves the College of Physicians and Surgeons in B.C., which was seeking to have an action brought against it dismissed as disclosing no reasonable cause of action. A group of 19 women is suing the College for failing to protect them from a doctor accused of sexual assault.

A lower court struck the claims for misfeasance in public office, but allowed the claims in negligence to stand. The College was seeking to have the case tossed out entirely.

The court suggests that the case would have been tossed out before a June 10 SCC decision. However, it says, “When that judgment came to the notice of the Court a few days after the hearing of this appeal, we invited submissions from counsel on the question of whether there are aspects of Quebec law, founded as it is on its Civil Code, which deprive this judgment of applicability in a common law province.”

“It is possible that the law of Canada on the liability of regulatory bodies is the same in the common law provinces as it is in Quebec,” it concludes. “Therefore, I am not persuaded that as a matter of law the proposed statement of claim discloses no reasonable claim.”

It allowed the case to stand.