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Occupiers Liability: Liability Experts Don’t Always Save the Day
The Ontario Court of Appeal just released its decision in Tondat v Hudson’s Bay Company et al. The facts of the case are ones we typically see in Occupiers cases. The plaintiff, Sandra Tondat, slipped and fell when entering The Hudson’s Bay Company...
Take Notice: There is no time for Notice
As Ontario’s auto insurance industry was waiting anxiously, the Court of Appeal for Ontario released an interesting decision on priority dispute notices to claimants. In Dominion v. Unifund, an accident benefits claimant was not notified of the...
First fatality at the hands of a… Robot?
On March 18, 2018, a vehicle operating in a “self-driving mode” (owned by Uber) struck and killed a woman in Tempe, Arizona, as she was crossing the street. This was the first documented time that an individual was killed by a self-driving vehicle....
Insurer Not Required to Provide Particulars of Surveillance Pre-Discovery
In the March 8, 2018 decision of Lipovetsky v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the plaintiff brought a motion to the Superior Court of Justice for a more fulsome affidavit of documents from the defendant insurer. The most interesting...
New Case: The Remedy of Relief of Forfeiture
In the recent decision of Wiles v. Sun Life, the Ontario Superior Court allowed a summary judgment motion by Sun Life, finding that the conduct of the plaintiff did not justify granting relief from forfeiture. The plaintiff was an employee of...
Amateur Athletes Secure Concussion Protection
In the midst of the current NHL season, which is seeing more stringent enforcement of concussion protocol implemented to protect professional athletes from potentially life altering brain injuries, the Ontario Government passed a bill that affords...
Court bars SABS actions for bad faith / punitive damages
Can a claimant receiving accident benefits still sue an insurer for extra-contractual damages in court, in light of the April 1, 2016 changes to the Insurance Act? That was the question before Justice Ramsay in a Rule 21 motion recently brought by...
Loss Transfer Superior Court confirms insurers cannot contract out of loss transfer
Automobile insurance is compulsory in Ontario. However, municipalities and large corporations have the financial means to arrange private contracts with their insurers that allow them to handle any claims, including accident benefits claims, that...
Disability Insurers Are Not Required to Give Notice of Limitation Period
The Ontario Court of Appeal has confirmed that disability insurers in Ontario are not required to give insureds notice of the two-year limitation period established by the Limitations Act, 2002 when denying a claim. Appealing from the insurer’s...
Better Get it Right: Termination Clauses in Contracts of Employment
With the expansion of Employment Practices Liability Policies (“HR Malpractice Insurance”) and employment practices endorsements in CGL policies, employment related disputes are becoming a growing portion of claim handlers’ workloads. The most...