Category Archives: Insurance News

Catch-all category for developments in the law of insurance.

Commercial Host Liable for Some of Plaintiff’s Contributory Negligence

The Court of Appeal released an interesting decision this afternoon, dealing with several issues. Most significantly, the case addressed the extent to which a commercial host, found to have over-served both a driver and a passenger, can be held responsible … Continue reading

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Brak v. Walsh (New Threshold Decision)

A decision dealing with the Insurance Act threshold was released this afternoon by Superior Court Justice Gordon Killeen, in Brak v. Walsh. Justice Killeen found that, in this case, the threshold had not been met. This was a motor vehicle case … Continue reading

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S.C.C. Grants Leave in Citadel v. Vytlingam

The Supreme Court of Canada this morning granted leave to Citadel Insurance to appeal last year’s decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal in Vytlingam v. Farmer et al. Subscribers will recall that in that case, three North Carolina youths placed … Continue reading

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Insurer Successfully Sues Its Defence Counsel for Trial Loss

In a case that may be of interest to LawPRO examiners as a possible harbinger of things to come in this country, an American insurer, dissatisfied with the outcome of a suit that it took to trial, has sued its … Continue reading

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Another C.A. Decision on “Ownership, Use or Operation”

Yesterday, the Court of Appeal dismissed the plaintiff’s appeal in Blight v. Axa and Royal & SunAlliance Insurance Company. Our firm acted for the successful respondent, Royal & SunAlliance. Royal insured a tenant and the issue was whether the policy … Continue reading

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Is Invasion of Privacy a Tort? Is There Insurance for It?

In our continuing effort to catch up on cases decided this month,  we would like to draw your attention today to an important ruling by Mr. Justice David Stinson, in Somwar v. McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada Ltd.  This was a … Continue reading

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Plaintiff’s Four Accidents Require Analysis of Causation, Consent, Threshold, Protected Defendant and Damages

The recent judgment of Superior Court Justice Ruth Mesbur in Moore v. Wienecke reads more like a law school problem than a real-life set of facts. The plaintiff was involved in motor vehicle accidents in 1998 and 2002, which were the claims … Continue reading

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C.A. Clarifies Duty to Defend

This month, the Court of Appeal has released two decisions dealing with an insurer’s “duty to defend”.Kohanski v. St. Paul The first is Kohanski v. St. Paul Guarantee Insurance Company. The issue in the case was whether a duty to … Continue reading

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Important Decision on Allocation of Defence Costs Between Covered and Non-covered Claims

Justice Denis Power of the Ontario Superior Court has released a significant ruling on the issue of allocation of defence costs. The case is Hanis v. The University of Western Ontario et al.; Guardian Insurance et al., third parties. As … Continue reading

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Plaintiff Back to Work, Engaged, But Still Meets Threshold

After a series of recent Bill 59 “threshold” decisions that have favoured insurers (most recently Page v. Primeau, which was the subject of a previous Update), a Superior Court judge has decided a threshold motion in favour of the plaintiff. In Sasso … Continue reading

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