On Christmas Eve in 2001, a car crash left Robert Kusnierz with numerous injuries, the most serious of which required the amputation of his left leg below the knee. Kusnierz sues his insurer, Economical Mutual Insurance Company, for a declaration that he sustained a “catastrophic impairment” under clause 2(1.1)(f) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule – [...]

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada will release judgment in Co-operators Life Insurance Company v. Gibbens, 2008 BCCA 153, an interesting case hinging on the proper interpretation of an insurance policy. I concede that issues surrounding insurance law may not seem terribly interesting at first rub, but the respondent’s extraordinary circumstances give rise to a number [...]

Last Friday, the SCC delivered their decision in Teck Cominco Metals v. Lloyd’s Underwriter’s, 2009 SCC 11. The private international law decision dealt with Teck Cominco’s attempt to have proceedings in British Columbia stayed because of an assertion of jurisdiction over the same matter in a U.S. Court. In a unanimous decision penned by McLachlin [...]

On Friday November 21, 2008 the SCC released its 4-3 judgment awarding the appellants $30 million in Canadian National Railway Co. v. Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Co. of Canada, 2008 SCC 66. This case involved a 14-year dispute between Canadian National Railway Co. (CNR) and its group of property insurers including Royal and Sun [...]

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada will render its judgment in the application for leave to appeal from Patti Tomasson v. Attorney General of Canada 2007 FCA 265. At issue is whether the provisions of the Employment Insurance Act, which grant certain maternity benefits only to biological mothers, discriminate against adoptive mothers within the meaning [...]

During his yearly deer-hunting party, Fred Wolfe was driving to a hunting stand when he spotted what he believed to be a deer. He emerged from his truck, and with the aid of his car’s headlights, shot at the object in question. It was, in fact, the respondent Harold George Herbison, who suffered significant injuries [...]

In 2005, the SCC released Royal Bank of Canada v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Company, an appeal from the Court of Appeal for Ontario which addresses the issue of whether an insurer, on the basis of a statutory condition, is able to deny a claim and void coverage granted to a mortgagee for damage [...]

In last year’s Fidler v. Sun Life Insurance Co. of Canada, the Supreme Court outlined the current state of compensation for mental distress under contract law, and also explained the appropriate circumstances in which punitive damages may be awarded. While the SCC overturned the B.C. Court of Appeal’s award of punitive damages – an argument [...]

It is trite to say that the banking industry and the insurance industry have been staples of the Canadian economy for over a century. One would assume that by now Canadian law would be clear on where the regulation of these industries falls in the constitutional division of powers. Banking, after all, has been expressly [...]

Now that spring has arrived and the academic year has grinded to a halt, it might be a good time to reflect back on some recent SCC cases that remain as of yet undecided. One intriguing case is Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company v. Harold George Herbison, et. al., which was heard in December of 2006. [...]