December 16, 2020
In a recent Court of Appeal decision, the Court upheld the defendant occupiers' successful summary judgment motion in a trip-and-fall case. Despite the plaintiff having expert evidence stating an unsafe elevation in the floor caused him to fall, the Court of Appeal ...
December 03, 2020
This was updated in December 2020 after appeal.
This was a dispute between AIG Insurance Company of Canada and Lloyd's Underwriters in respect of the duty to defend a claim brought against the City of Markham.
The City rented a hockey rink to the Markham Waxers Hockey Club and associated entities. A young boy was injured while attending a game at the hockey rink. He sued the City, Hockey Canada and the Waxers for damages resulting from his injuries.
December 02, 2020
On November 20, 2020, Bill 218, entitled “Supporting Ontario's Recovery and Municipal Election Act, 2020” (“the Act”) received Royal Assent.1 The Act provides at section 2(1) that:
No cause of action arises against any person as a direct or indirect result of an individual being or potentially being infected with or exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19) on or after March 17, 2020, as a direct or indirect result of an act or omission of the person if...
November 24, 2020
In Huma v. Mississauga Hospital, the plaintiffs commenced a medical malpractice action against 14 physicians and two hospitals, alleging to have suffered significant damages as a result of the professional wrongdoing of same. The Statement of Claim stated that the plaintiffs were self-represented. Upon receipt of the Claim, the defendants defended the action.
Months later, having heard nothing from the plaintiffs, the defendants inquired as to whether the plaintiffs were willing to dismiss the action...
November 06, 2020
In McConnell v. Fraser, McCague Borlack LLP successfully opposed the Plaintiff's motion to amend his Statement of Claim to add a new cause of action outside the limitation period.
The issues before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice were as follows...
November 06, 2020
In Ontario, the provincial legislation shows a commitment to protecting contractors and subcontractors by enabling them to collect outstanding balances owing for services and materials through the use of construction trusts, holdbacks and liens. This case confirms this commitment and is a helpful decision for provincial contractors.
October 19, 2020
On September 23, 2020, the License Appeal Tribunal (“LAT”) released a ruling that it does not have jurisdiction to award punitive damages.
The Applicant filed a motion to the LAT requesting that a claim for punitive damages be added as an issue in dispute on the basis of an alleged privacy breach.
In the case of Unifund Assurance Co. v. Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, a family insured under an Ontario motor vehicle policy, issued by Unifund, was driving a rental car in British Columbia when they were struck by a tractor-trailer insured by ICBC under a British Columbia insurance policy. The insureds sued in British Columbia and were awarded $2.5 million. Unifund, in turn, brought suit against ICBC with reference to section 275 of Ontario’s Insurance Act and sought to recover the benefits it had paid out to the family under the SABS.
The case went to the Supreme Court of Canada which found...
In the recent reconsideration decision of 2020 ONLAT 19-006032/AABS, McCague Borlack LLP was successful in having the applicant’s request for reconsideration dismissed. Vice Chair Farlam considered the request for a reconsideration of her Decision released on May 14, 2020 ("Decision") in “which the applicant was barred from proceeding with her application to determine her entitlement to non-earner benefits ("NEBs") because she failed to attend the respondent’s s. 44 independent examination ("IE")”.
October 14, 2020
Many Canadians felt panic over the last month as the expiry date for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (“CERB”) loomed. As of October 3, 2020, Canadian workers who were relying on the CERB for financial support saw this benefit come to an end.
However, in response to this looming expiry date, the House of Commons sprung in to action on September 29, 2020 to unanimously pass Bill C-4: An Act relating to certain measures in response to COVID-19.
Bill C-4 was also quickly passed by the Senate, and it received Royal Assent on October 2, 2020.
September 28, 2020
In Ontario, there is a well-established practice of asking jurors to provide reasons for their verdicts. The jury is not absolutely required to provide this information. There is a presumption of integrity regarding general verdicts; simply because the jury did not explain its verdict is not a ground for appeal.
The exception to this presumption arises in professional negligence cases...
September 26, 2020
In Ontario, s.4 of the Limitations Act, 2002, (“Act”) establishes a two-year limitation period for a claimant to commence an action, which begins to run once the claim is discovered. However, there exists an exception for those claimants that are “incapable” to commence the proceeding.
In this case study, a man suffering from mental illness and psychotic delusions, killed his son and later commenced an action against the drug company...
September 18, 2020
When it comes to claims for wrongful dismissal, without cause termination provisions have received almost all of the attention in recent years.
However, in the wake of a recent landmark decision by the Court of Appeal for Ontario (“ONCA”), employers should now be turning their attention to the other portions of the termination provisions in their non-unionized employees’ contracts.
September 15, 2020
Access to well-functioning justice and court systems are fundamental to a just and fair Canadian society. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges that have impacted the Canadian justice system.
Recently, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has struck civil juries in two personal injury actions...
September 01, 2020
In TD Insurance and Intact Insurance, McCague Borlack LLP successfully argued that Intact Insurance, not TD insurance, had priority to pay statutory accident benefits to a claimant for personal injuries sustained in an October 30, 2017, motor vehicle accident.
The question before Arbitrator Bialkowski was whom a 17-year-old claimant was principally financially dependent on – the claimant's father (Intact) or the claimant's stepmother (TD). To complicate matters, the claimant was a passenger in the vehicle owned by her stepmother and had recently moved from her biological mother's home to reside with her father and stepmother at the time of the accident.
