Insurance Blogs hosted by Canadian Underwriter
Insurance Blogs hosted by Canadian Underwriter
A Superior Court judge has held (finally) that the $2,000 loss transfer deductible is applied per claimant. Ontario’s loss transfer scheme is found in section 275 of the Insurance Act. Section 275 (1) allows the insurer paying accident benefits to…
A Superior Court judge has ruled that an identified automobile cannot become unidentified for the purpose of claiming unidentified motorist coverage. In Lambert v Khan, the plaintiff claimed to have suffered very severe and long-lasting whiplash-type injuries in a low…
My recent article in the January 2016 K-W OIAA Bulletin As we look forward to a new year of insurance law excitement, let us reflect on some of the interesting cases and legal developments that impacted the auto insurance industry…
Who would have thought a year ago that the Ontario Superior Court would have released five decisions in 2015 dealing with prejudgment interest/deductible issues in motor vehicle accident tort cases? My associate Alexandra Wilkins has been keeping track of this issue…
A November 30, 2015 Law Times article titled “Arbitrator orders rare special award against insurer” reports on an unusual FSCO case between Thomas Waldock and his auto insurer. The case not only highlights the constant risks associated with relying on insurer…
A five-member panel of the Court of Appeal for Ontario has released a new decision dealing with out-of-province accidents and conflict of laws issues. In Forsythe v. Westfall, the claimant appellant was an Ontario resident who was insured under an…
The Ontario Court of Appeal has released a long-awaited decision on whether the equitable doctrine of laches applies to loss transfer matters. The Court held that there is no laches in loss transfer. The doctrine of laches issue arises when…
A FSCO arbitrator has ruled that a child who fell off a fire truck at a birthday party was not involved in an automobile “accident”. In Carr v. TD, the five-year-old claimant was attending a birthday party for a classmate…
Published in the K-W OIAA September 2015 Bulletin by Dan Strigberger On August 26, 2015, the Ontario Legislature filed Bill 251/15, which amends the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule in a number of remarkable ways. For the most part, the amendments…
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has released a decision dealing with whether an owner of an ATV can be held vicariously liable for a driver’s negligence, even though no consent was given to operate the vehicle. The decision is…
The Ontario Divisional Court has allowed an insurer’s appeal in a case deciding when interest begins to run on attendant care benefits that are found to be owing under the SABS. In Grigoroff v Wawanesa, the plaintiff was involved in…
On June 18, 2015, the Digital Privacy Act received Royal Assent and is now law in Canada. The Act amends PIPEDA in a number of ways, but there are three major changes that insurers need to know about: Organizations must…
The Supreme Court of Canada has reversed the Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Zurich v. Chubb. The claimant was driving a Ford Windstar that she had rented from Wheels4Rent, a car rental agency. On September 23, 2006, she had…
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has held that a hospital can be sued (in a proposed class action) for a privacy breach.
In Hopkins v. Kay, the class plaintiff alleged that her records as a patient at the Peterborough Regional Heath Centre were improperly accessed. She based her claim on the common law tort of intrusion upon seclusion, set out in Jones v. Tsige.
The hospital brought a Rule 21 motion to dismiss the claim on the ground that the Personal Health Information Protection Act (“PHIPA”) is an exhaustive code that ousts the jurisdiction of the Superior Court to entertain any common law claim for invasion of privacy rights in relation to patient records.
