RP Blog

Parties to a lawsuit usually have the right to be present at the discoveries of all other parties. However, the court has discretion to order otherwise. In Findlay v. Yagminas, 2019 ONSC 6743, the court outlined the factors to consider in determining whether co-parties should be excluded from each other’s discoveries.Read More

Generally, the first party to serve a sworn affidavit of documents and a notice of examination is entitled to examine the opposing party for discovery before being examined himself or herself. However, the decision in Lambert v. Maracle, 2019 ONSC 7003, shows that, in order to rely on this rule,Read More

A plaintiff has five years to set an action down for trial, or else the action will be dismissed for delay by the registrar. If the action cannot be set down within five years, the parties can consent to a timetable at least 30 days prior to the expiry ofRead More

In Hadzic et al v. Croxford, 2019 ONSC 6839, the Divisional Court considered an appeal by the plaintiff following a jury trial arising from a motor vehicle accident. Prior to trial, the defendant offered to settle for $150,000, net of the deductible, plus costs. The jury awarded $15,000 for generalRead More

Last week, the Court of Appeal released an important decision for rental car companies and their insurers. Section 277(1.1) of the Insurance Act contains a priority scheme for accidents involving rented or leased vehicles. The provision states as follows: (1.1) Despite subsection (1), if an automobile is leased, the followingRead More

The Supreme Court of Canada recently denied leave to appeal in the case of Gendron v. Doug C. Thompson Ltd. (Thompson Fuels).  This brings an end to a lawsuit that determined several important issues. Facts The case arose out of an oil leak. Approximately one week into trial, the plaintiffRead More

The case of Pembridge Insurance Company of Canada v. Chu, 2019 ONCA 904, arose out of a motor vehicle accident. The plaintiff sued Fabrizi alleging that he drove through a red light and caused her injuries. Fabrizi commenced a third party claim against Chu. Fabrizi alleged that Chu drove negligently. FabriziRead More

In Conners v. D’Angelo, 2019 ONCA 905, the plaintiff was a passenger in a vehicle driven by an unlicensed driver, without the permission of the owner. The plaintiff was injured in an accident and sued the driver, the owner of the vehicle, and the owner’s liability insurer. On a summaryRead More

In discoveries in personal injury actions, there is sometimes disagreement over how far back a plaintiff’s medical records should be produced. In Imbrogno v. Gonzalez, 2019 ONSC 6404, the court determined that records and information from 17 years prior to the incident in question were relevant. The plaintiff sued overRead More

Defence counsel are not permitted to communicate with a plaintiff’s treating healthcare practitioners, without the plaintiff’s consent. This includes preparing a treating healthcare practitioner for trial. In Roy v. Primmum Insurance Company, 2019 ONSC 6361, which involved an accident benefits trial, the court considered whether defence counsel could prepare the plaintiffs’Read More

By Brian Sunohara In Little v. Floyd Sinton Limited, 2019 ONCA 865, the plaintiff was largely successful in an appeal involving an incident where the plaintiff jumped out of the back of a moving school bus. Background At the time of the incident, the plaintiff was 13 years old andRead More

It is often thought that the limitation period to commence a duty to defend application is two years from an insurer’s refusal to defend. For example, in Zochowski v. Security National Insurance, 2015 ONSC 7881, Justice Belobaba stated that “[t]he law is clear that a clear and unequivocal denial of coverage triggersRead More

The court’s decision in Dainov v. Lee, 2019 ONSC 5993, shows the value of dash cam footage in determining liability for an accident. Based on a dash cam video, Justice Koehnen was satisfied that the defendant driver was not liable for a motor vehicle accident. The video showed that theRead More

In Benson v. Belair Insurance Company Inc., 2019 ONCA 840, the Court of Appeal examined whether two Ontario insurers had to provide statutory accident benefits (“SABS”) in regards to accidents that occurred outside of Ontario involving an ATV and a dirt bike. One accident occurred in British Columbia. The claimantRead More

By Brian Sunohara For many years, the default prejudgment interest (“PJI”) rate in Ontario for non-pecuniary damages in personal injury cases was 5%. When this rate was introduced, market interest rates were actually much higher than 5%. In auto cases, the default 5% PJI rate changed in 2015 to accountRead More

In Doumouras v. Chander, 2019 ONSC 6056, the court outlined the five requirements for a claim for negligent misrepresentation: there must be a duty of care based on a “special relationship” between the representor and the representee; the representation in question must be untrue, inaccurate, or misleading; the representor mustRead More

In Bancroft-Snell v. Visa Canada Corporation, 2019 ONCA 822, a five-member panel of the Court of Appeal confirmed that an individual member of a class action does not have the right to challenge settlement approval orders by way of appeal. The Court of Appeal stated that class members who doRead More

By Brian Sunohara In Paddy-Cannon et al v. Attorney General of Canada et al, 2019 ONSC 5665, the court went over the differences between credibility and reliability. A credible witness may not be a reliable witness. Credibility has to do with a witness’s veracity. Reliability has to do with theRead More

“It is very unfortunate that these neighbours could not have found someway to work this out. Sadly, both sides have incurred significant legal costs and an even more significant amount of stress”. Those were the comments of Justice J.E. Ferguson in a dispute between neighbours in Dawes v. Gill, 2019 ONSCRead More

Brian Sunohara of our firm has handled numerous product liability and environmental claims involving leaks from oil tanks. In some of these cases, the oil tank went missing before it could be fully inspected by experts. Plaintiffs will sometimes argue that the cause of the leak can still be determinedRead More

By Brian Sunohara In Bradfield v. Royal Sun Alliance Insurance Company of Canada, 2019 ONCA 800, the Court of Appeal disagreed with the trial judge that an insurer waived its right to rely on a policy breach for not conducting thorough and timely investigations. The matter arose out of aRead More

In Lumsden et al v. The Toronto Police Services Board et al, 2019 ONSC 5052, the court addressed the essential features of a binding settlement: There has to be a mutual intention to create a legally binding contract. The parties must reach an agreement on all the essential terms ofRead More

The Court of Appeal’s decision in Lilydale Cooperative Limited v. Meyn Canada Inc., 2019 ONCA 761, describes what a defendant should do if it has a viable third party claim for contribution and indemnity, but wants to challenge whether Ontario is the appropriate forum for the main action. When facedRead More

In Robichaud et al v. Constantinidis et al., 2019 ONSC 5396, there was a dispute over whether plaintiffs’ counsel could make use of demonstrative aids in an opening address to the jury. The particular items in question were photographs showing the plaintiff, her son, and her dog, as well asRead More

In D.S. v. Quesnell, 2019 ONSC 3230, the plaintiff was sexually abused by his step-father between the ages of five and ten. The step-father was criminally convicted of assault, sexual assault, and sexual interference. In a civil action, the plaintiff brought a motion for default judgment against his step-father. Medical evidenceRead More

The decision in Sokoloff v. Bateriwala, 2019 ONSC 5442, is another example of the courts cracking down on delay in litigation. The lawsuit in question was commenced in April 2013. It was dismissed for delay by the registrar in April 2018. The plaintiffs sought to set aside the dismissal. This request wasRead More

In Rodrigues v. Purtill, 2019 ONCA 740, one of the issues was whether a psychologist is a “physician” for the purpose of proving that the plaintiff meets the statutory threshold in motor vehicle accident claims. In order to meet the threshold of a permanent serious impairment, the applicable regulation requiresRead More

The test for transferring an action to a different jurisdiction was considered in Shokar v. Windsor Casino Limited, 2019 ONSC 5242. The plaintiff commenced a lawsuit in Brampton arising from money that he lost gambling at Caesars Windsor. He lost $342,000 over three days. The plaintiff lived in Mississauga atRead More

In a reconsideration decision at the Licence Appeal Tribunal, the claimant successfully argued that a new hearing should be ordered due to a denial of nature justice. In S.A. v. Guarantee Insurance, 2019 CanLII 77002, a combined written and oral hearing was conducted on consent. The matter dealt with entitlementRead More

The Court of Appeal’s decision in Erland v. Ontario, 2019 ONCA 689, shows that the five year deadline to set civil actions down for trial must be taken seriously. A plaintiff who seeks to extend the deadline and prevent an action from being dismissed for delay has the burden ofRead More

Section 277(1.1) of the Insurance Act outlines the order in which motor vehicle liability policies have to respond to accidents involving rented and leased vehicles. The order is: lessee, driver, and owner. In Aviva Insurance Company v. Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 ONCA 704, the Court of Appeal examined who isRead More

In Enterprise Rent-A-Car v. Richards, 2019 ONSC 5201, the defendant rented a minivan and purchased an optional Collision Damage Waiver. The vehicle was involved in an accident. The defendant’s son was driving the vehicle with the defendant as a passenger. The son was not an authorized driver under the rental agreement andRead More

Section 19(1.2)(d) of the Courts of Justice Act gives the Divisional Court jurisdiction over appeals where: the trial court has dismissed a claim in which the plaintiff had not claimed more than $50,000 exclusive of costs, or the trial court has dismissed a claim and, if the claim had been allowed,Read More

There are risks with renting out condominium units. The case of York Condominium No. 187 v. Sandhu, 2019 ONSC 4779, demonstrates an extreme risk. Sandhu owned a condominium unit. She leased it to a tenant. The tenant was in constant conflict with building management and ultimately sued the condominium corporation (“YCC”) forRead More

In Peter B. Cozzi Professional Corporation v. Szot, 2019 ONSC 5071, the court went over the differences between the doctrines of issue estoppel and abuse of process. The purpose of both doctrines is to promote finality to litigation. Duplicative litigation, potential inconsistent results, undue costs, and inconclusive proceedings are toRead More

If a party makes a mistake in entering into a settlement agreement, it is difficult to set the settlement aside. In Kearns v. Canadian Tire Corporation Limited, 2019 ONSC 4946, a settlement was reached at a mediation in a wrongful dismissal claim. Following the mediation, the defendant realized that a paymentRead More

The Court of Appeal’s decision in The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group v. Campbell, 2019 ONCA 668, demonstrates that, if an insurer wants to dispute coverage, it must do so in a timely manner or at least notify its insured of a potential coverage issue. Campbell was involved in an accidentRead More

In Hunt v. Peel Mutual Insurance Company, 2019 ONCA 656, the Court of Appeal upheld a decision which addressed whether an automobile insurer had to defend a father for negligent parenting. A daughter sued her father arising out of a motor vehicle accident. The daughter alleged that her father wasRead More

Does a doctor owe a duty of care to a family member of a patient? That was one of several questions in the case of Wawrzyniak v. Livingstone, 2019 ONSC 4900. The plaintiff’s father was elderly and was suffering from several illnesses, including gangrene in his legs. Following knee amputation surgery,Read More