An Ontario woman wrongfully put behind bars for her daughter's death has won the right to sue a pathologist who performed a flawed autopsy.
In a landmark decision expected to open the doors for others falsely accused, a three-judge Ontario Court of Appeal panel decided Wednesday to allow Louise Reynolds to move forward with her lawsuit against former Toronto pathologist Dr. Charles Smith.
The Kingston woman was mistakenly charged with murder and spent two years in jail after Smith concluded from an autopsy that Reynolds's seven-year-old daughter had been stabbed to death. An autopsy by other pathologists later determined the girl had been mauled by a pit bull.
Reynolds was earlier denied the right to sue Smith because of a 2005 ruling by Ontario's Divisional Court that experts cannot be sued for giving professional opinions in court cases.
Reynolds' lawyer argued the witness protection rule should not cover a pathologist's investigation which should be seen as separate from testimony.