The court held that the insurer properly denied defence coverage under the “notwithstanding clause”. The allegations in the pleadings combined with the admissions made by the insured were sufficient to trigger the mortgage broker/mortgage intermediary exclusion. As such, the insurer’s decision to deny defence coverage was based on reasonable grounds.

10. January 2006 0
James v. Lawyers’ Professional Indemnity Co., [2006] O.J. No. 46, Ontario Superior Court of Justice

Section 20 of the Insurance (Motor Vehicle) Act enables a person insured by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (“ICBC”), injured in a motor vehicle accident in British Columbia, to seek compensation directly from ICBC once judgment has been obtained for damages. S. 20 also provides ICBC with a right to be compensated by the person responsible for the accident for funds paid to the insured pursuant to s. 20. If ICBC does not comply strictly with the requirements imposed on it by s. 20, ICBC is not entitled to seek compensation from the responsible party.

05. January 2006 0
Insurance Corp. of British Columbia v. Hosseini, [2006] B.C.J. No. 6, British Columbia Court of Appeal

An insured threw a tire iron at a third party. The tire iron struck the third party in the temple and killed him. The insurance company was required to provide the insured with a defence to the civil action commenced against him by the deceased family because there was a real possibility that the insured could be found to have killed the third party as a result of negligence, as opposed to an assault or trespass to the person without lawful justification.

22. December 2005 0
Miller v. Grain Insurance and Guarantee Co., [2005] S.J. No. 767, Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench

Judgment following an Application pursuant to Rule 33. The Court held that: 1) ICBC was not required to pay the Plaintiff an adjustment to the damages calculated as of the date of trial which counsel had incorrectly referred to as “interest”; 2) ICBC was required to pay post-judgment interest on unpaid costs; and 3) ICBC was not entitled to deduct the appeal costs awarded in favour of the Insured against the trial costs it was required to pay the Plaintiff.

07. December 2005 0
Reilly v. Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, [2005] B.C.J. No. 2660, British Columbia Supreme Court

The University of Western Ontario (the “University”) succeeded in obtaining an Order that its Insurer (“Guardian”) pay 95% of the legal costs incurred by the University in defending an action brought against it by a former employee (“Hanis”). Guardian was held to be responsible for all defence costs except that portion of the costs related exclusively to non-covered claims.

07. December 2005 0
Hanis v. University of Western Ontario, [2005] O.J. No. 5289, Ontario Superior Court of Justice