The Ontario Court of Appeal, in Keam v. Caddey, 2010 ONCA 565, has awarded plaintiffs $40, 000 in additional costs after an insurer refused to participate in mediation prior to trial.
The plaintiff, in Tucci v. Pugliese, [2009] O.J. No. 2956, Maria Tucci, was seated in her kitchen when an uninsured motor vehicle driven by the defendant, Giuseppe Pugliese, ran into a wall of her house. The collision caused a sudden, loud bang and violent shaking of the house, which allegedly caused tremendous shock to the plaintiff and inflicted damage to the home estimated at between $85,000 and $100,000...
In Lockhard, the plaintiff Lockhard was injured in a single-vehicle accident when her vehicle was being driven by the defendant Quiroz with her consent. At the time of the accident, the plaintiff's vehicle was insured by the third party C.A.A. Insurance Co. (Ontario) ("CAA"). The plaintiff sued the driver for damages.
In ACE INA Insurance v. Co-operators General Insurance Co., 2009 CarswellOnt 1668 (Ont. S.C.J.), the claimant initially applied to the driver’s insurer, the Co-operators, for payment of accident benefits. However, the Co-operators took the matter to arbitration and argued that, under the “company car” provision, the claimant was a named insured under the ACE policy which made ACE solely responsible for his accident benefits claim. The arbitrator agreed with the Co-operators and ACE appealed the decision.
December 31, 2009
In the Mustapha decision,1 the Supreme Court of Canada conclusively established the objective nature of the foreseeability test to be applied in the determination of causation in law or, as the issue is sometimes described, remoteness of damage, in claims for psychological injury. What it did not do, however, was set down ground rules for the type and quality of evidence suitable for that determination...
In Tridan Developments Ltd. v. Shell Canada Products Ltd., 2002, CanLII 20789 (ON C.A.), the Court dealt with an appeal from an assessment of damages arising from the contamination of the respondent's Tridan Developments Ltd. property by a gasoline spill from the appellant's Shell Canada Products Ltd. neighbouring gas station.
November 30, 2009
A primary concern for the design professional has always been the length of time during which claims can be brought in respect of work performed. In some cases, including those involving latent defects, proceedings are commenced long after the work in issue has been completed.
Unidentified motorist claims are, at times, challenging to investigate and resolve. Frequently, all the liability eveidence is solely within the knowledge of the plaintiff. There is some comfort to be had in an initial scene investigation by the police, and supporting eveidence arising form the property damage to the vehicle. In the event more than one vehicle was involved in the accident, witness statements are generally supportive of the plaintiff's allegations of a John Doe causing the accident.
Limitation periods vary across Canada, but generally range from 1 to 2 years for most causes of actions. The recent trend in Canadian courts has been to strictly enforce limitation periods, making it important for subrogation professionals handling claims in Canada to be mindful of the applicable limitation period and act timely and efficiently to ensure that the opportunity for recovery on potential claims is not lost.
August 31, 2009
Until the decision in C.C.R. Fishing Ltd. v Tomenson Inc., the element of causation in insurance law, particularly in the context of insuring provisions, revolved largely around the concept of proximate cause, meaning the effective and dominant cause of the loss. Since that decision, the focus has shifted to a consideration of the impact of concurrent causes, both in regard to insuring agreements and exclusion clauses.
An area that has not, however, received the attention it merits is the distinction between serial and independent concurrent causes.
A long-standing insurance dispute over the failure of a massive tunnel boring machine (“TBM”) ended in late November 2008 with a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada awarding nearly $40 million to the insured. The decision addresses the “faulty or improper design” exclusion common to most “all-risks” property policies.
The recent Court of Appeal decision in Miller v. Carluccio (2008), 91 O.R. (3d) 638 (C.A.) makes it clear that driving or operating an automobile without a valid driver's licence is not, in itself, sufficient to ground a subrogated claim. Although the case was decided on the issue of coverage, it has important implications for subrogation.
Until recently, there have been conflicting decisions as to whether the Ontario New Home Warranties Plan Act (the “Act”) constitutes an exclusive statutory scheme for dealing with claims by new home buyers against builders. The Court of Appeal has recently confirmed that home buyers can pursue remedies against builders in the courts.
November 30, 2008
A municipality's obligations are the same for bicyclists as they are for pedestrians. It is obligated to keep the road and sidewalks in a reasonable state of repair and that responsibility covers not just problems that can be readily spotted but those hazards that may not be so obvious as well.
August 31, 2008
Whether it is a police officer responding to a call, an ambulance rushing to help a critically ill patient, or a fire truck speeding to a fire, intersections crashes are the most common and almost always the most serious collisions involving emergency vehicles.
