When a builder negligently repairs a school’s gymnasium roof, which causes rain to spill into the gym and damage the wooden floor below, does the builder’s All Risk Builder’s policy cover the damage to the floor? Pre-Eng v. Intact involved a coverage battle between...
Daniel Strigberger
Digital Privacy Act brings hurrahs, headaches to insurers
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 make sure they are using a valid consent for the...
PHIPA does not protect health information custodians from lawsuits
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...
Loss transfer limitation rolls along
The Superior Court has upheld an arbitrator's decision, finding that loss transfer is subject to a two-year rolling limitation period. In Economical v. Zurich, the claimant was driving a car and was involved in a motor vehicle accident with a dump truck. She applied...
ONCA reverses Matheson: no husbandry here
The Court of Appeal for Ontario has reversed the Superior Court’s decision in Matheson v. Lewis, finding that the plaintiff farmer’s Honda ATV was an off-road vehicle that required automobile insurance at the time of the accident. In Matheson, the plaintiff farmer...
Insurer can’t sue “your and you”
The Ontario Superior Court has released a subrogation decision dealing with two interesting issues: Assessing a defendant’s negligence and the ability of an insurer to subrogate against its own unnamed insured. In Rochon v. Rochon, the defendant was the plaintiffs’...
Court of Appeal skunks late property loss claims
The Court of Appeal has allowed an insurer’s appeal asserting the one-year limitation period in an all-risk property policy. The decision highlights how important it is for insurance contracts – and especially limitation period provisions in them – to have clear...
A tale of two automobiles
"I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car's headlights and tell you exactly which way it's coming." - Mitch Hedberg, comedian The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) has decided that 2011 will be the "Year of the Automobile." Herein is a tale of...