The Common Law is Sometimes Not So Common — ONCA Releases Contradictory Decisions on Municipal Liability in Nearly Identical Cases
Canada is a common law jurisdiction. The heart of the common law is that like cases are to be treated alike. This fundamental principle of the common law is upheld through the use of appellate courts. A judge of a...
Who can be Present at an Examination for Discovery?
Answering the question of who should be allowed to attend at an examination for discovery involves an exercise in balancing two competing interests: the interest of upholding the privacy of examinations as a pre-trial discovery process relevant to the parties’...
When a Spouse is not a Spouse
The Superior Court has recently had the opportunity to revisit an issue that has not been addressed by the courts in twenty years: whether the Family Law Act definition of “spouse” applies to the Insurance Act definition of “spouse”. For...
Kapoor v. Kuzmanovski: A Debate on the Insurance Paying Juror
Recently, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kapoor v. Kuzmanovski, 2018 ONSC 4770 (CanLII) determined the issue of whether individuals who drive and pay automobile insurance premiums can be excluded as potential jurors in cases arising out of motor...
Juries Behaving Badly
Jury duty is an – often dreaded – civic duty central to the justice system in Canada. A juror’s duty is to listen to the evidence and argument, and to deliver an independent, impartial decision based on the case presented...
Nemchin v. Green: The Deduction of Collateral Benefits at Trial
The plaintiff was injured in a car accident in 2010. The trial in 2017 led to a jury verdict of $125,000 in general damages and $600,000 in future loss of income. The plaintiff did not seek an award of past...
Where a Plaintiff is Ordinarily Resident Outside of Ontario, Under What Circumstances will a Court Order Security for Costs?
General Legal Principles Rule 56.01 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 194 provides that the Court, on motion by a defendant in a proceeding, may make an order for security for costs where it appears that the...
Artificial Intelligence Revolution and the Insurance Industry
The information revolution has had an undeniable impact on society, as did the industrial revolution before it. Now artificial intelligence is poised to be the next revolution that will have an immense impact on our society from our personal lives...
“Scanty” Evidence Failed to Establish a Plaintiff’s Entitlement to Recover Interest on Loans Borrowed for the Purpose of Litigation
In Isbister v. Delong, 2017 BCCA 340, the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a trial judge’s decision that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover, as special damages, interest on money she borrowed from her lawyers. Facts of the...
Clarifying the “Trilogy” and the Covenant to Insure: Royal Host GP Inc. v. 1842259 Ontario Ltd.
Introduction In Royal Host GP Inc. v. 1842259 Ontario Ltd., 2018 ONCA 467, the Ontario Court of Appeal reversed the motion judge’s decision, clarified what is known as the “Trilogy” and allowed a landlord to advance a subrogated action against...
