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Risk of personal injury after vehicle stolen by two minors from commercial garage found not to be reasonably foreseeable. The Supreme Court of Canada has weighed in on the duty of care owed by a business that stores vehicles to someone who is…
Choose Wisely: LTD Insurer Entitled to WSIB Offset Despite Tort Election
In a recent decision, of Wilken v. Sunlife, the Ontario Court of Appeal has confirmed that a long-term disability insurer is entitled to enforce the wording of the policy where a participant’s action or inaction would adversely vary an insurer’s…
Granny Smiths to Honey Crisps: Auto Defendant Entitled to Assignment of LTD Benefits
The recent Superior Court decision of Nemchin v. Green by Corthorn J. is a significant win for auto insurers dealing with the deductibility of collateral benefits from large future loss of income awards. The plaintiff was injured in a motor…
Hospital Hi-jinks: Insurer’s Duty to Defend Extended to Nosy Nurse
Following the creation of the tort of intrusion upon seclusion in 2012, we have seen numerous cases that have clarified the application of same. In the most recent pronouncement, Oliveira v. Aviva Canada Inc., the Court of Appeal dealt with…
New Case: ON Coverage laws limited if MVA in BC
On April 10, 2018, the Divisional Court released an important decision regarding ATV incidents outside of Ontario. Specifically, in Benson v. Belair Insurance Co. Inc., the Divisional Court considered whether the Claimant was entitled to…
The Wide Latitude of a Duty to Defend
A recent Court of Appeal decision outlined the breadth of an insurer’s duty to defend. In Ernst v. Northbridge Personal Insurance Corporation, the application judge ruled that the insurer had a duty to defend the driver of an ATV. The insurance…
Disability Long Term Disability Insurance: Common Employer Misconceptions
Employers often provide their employees with access to long-term disability benefits through a group benefit plan. These benefits are usually provided and administered by a third party insurer. The insurer’s role is to manage the disability claim…
Waiver On: The Court of Appeal confirms the validity of Waivers
The Court of Appeal recently released their much anticipated decision dealing with the impact of waivers. The Court heard two cases together that dealt with patrons who were injured while skiing at resorts. In both instances, the patrons executed…
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…
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….