Floppy Ear Files
Insurance coverage and private arbitration blawg.
It’s like a legal thriller, but with fewer car (or beagle) chases and more “Did they really mean that in the policy?” Let’s decode the mysteries, strategies, and occasional absurdities of this fascinating (in an insurance sort of way) world.
ONCA: No “trial within a trial” in the duty to defend
This article was previously posted in October 2022. The Ontario Court of Appeal recently considered the traditional pleadings rule and found that the duty to defend cannot be ousted by use of premature evidence, that...
Priority Insurer Has No Options
NOTE: This article was previously posted in July 2019. The decision was overturned in Continental Casualty Company v. Chubb Insurance Company of Canada, 2022 ONCA 188 (CanLII) Can the insurer, who is required to waive...
ONCA Stops Rolling Limitation Period For Business Interruption
This article was previously posted in August 2019. The Ontario Court of Appeal has held that business interruption claims are not subject to a rolling limitation period. In Marvelous Mario's Inc. v. St. Paul Fire, the...
No Void Ab Initio For Auto
This article was initially posted in May 2019. Can an Ontario insurer treat an automobile policy as being void ab initio and deny a claim in its entirety as a result? The Court of Appeal for Ontario says "no". Merino...
How Much Risk Does A Builder’s Risk Risk?
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?...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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...