Claims

100-year flood level on Yukon River prompts warning to village of Carmacks

WHITEHORSE – The water level on the Yukon River at the village of Carmacks keeps rising, prompting a flood warning from the territory. A statement from the territory says the river is at a level only seen once every 100 years. The forecasts calls for temperatures in the high 20s, which the statement says will […]

By Jason Contant | June 23, 2021

1 min read

Claims

Cleanup of trees, debris underway after deadly Quebec tornado

MASCOUCHE, Que. – Residents of a town north of Montreal on Tuesday were clearing out tree branches and twisted debris scattered by a deadly tornado that tore through the community and killed one of their neighbours. The tornado Monday afternoon carved a destructive path through a residential neighbourhood of Mascouche, Que., snapping mature trees in […]

By Jason Contant | June 22, 2021

4 min read

Claims

‘Unavoidable delay’ lease clause does not mean retailer can delay paying rent during lockdown: Court

Hudson’s Bay Company cannot use an “unavoidable delay” clause in a mall lease agreement to stop paying rent to the landlord during the COVID-19 pandemic, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the World Health Organization. Shortly thereafter, HBC closed its store at the Cherry […]

By Greg Meckbach | June 21, 2021

4 min read

Claims

Why ridesharing makes motor vehicle accident claims more complex

Inspecting the accident scene early and downloading black box data are among the tactics insurance lawyers use to defend ride share tort claims, lawyers suggested to A.M. Best Company Inc. “Rideshare cases often involve multiple parties and different causes of action,” said Patrick DeLong, an insurance defence lawyer with Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin. […]

By Greg Meckbach | June 21, 2021

2 min read

Why liability insurance did not cover the defence of a remediation order

An eastern Ontario municipality does not have coverage with any of its four former liability insurers for a dispute with the provincial environment ministry over alleged pollution occurring more than six decades ago. That’s because the insurance policies in question provide coverage for a “civil action,” and a remediation order by Ontario’s environment ministry is […]

5 min read

Canadian P&C industry’s financial results take a turn for the better

Canada’s property and casualty insurance industry reported a much sunnier financial picture in 2021 Q1 than it did during the same time last year, according to a recent quarterly report by the Property and Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation (PACICC). Financial results of insurers from the first quarter of this year were “much better” compared to […]

3 min read

A plaintiff suffered a concussion a year before the accident – how this should affect loss of income award

The Court of Appeal for British Columbia has doubled a tort award, for loss of future earning capacity, for a motor vehicle accident victim who had suffered several concussions before he badly injured his head in a rear-end collision. On May 25, 2016, Callum Dornan, then 24, was a back-seat passenger in a Jeep Wrangler […]

5 min read

Progress report: Canada-wide flood mapping is well underway

A nationwide estimate of coastal, pluvial, and fluvial flood hazard is one part of the ongoing effort to come up with a national approach to insuring or re-locating homes at high risk of flood, a federal government official suggests. Flood mapping is one of five interconnected pieces of residential flood risk management, said Matthew Godsoe, […]

3 min read

A home under renovation isn’t necessarily “under construction:” Appeal Court

A home under renovation doesn’t mean it is “under construction,” Ontario’s Appeal Court has ruled, rejecting an insurer’s interpretation of its home insurance policy exclusion. In Tataryn v. Axa Insurance Canada (now Intact Insurance), Susan Tataryn’s Ottawa property served as both her residence and place of business for her tax law practice. Her property was […]

3 min read

How much property coverage capacity Canada’s oil sands has lost

The withdrawal of “hundreds of millions” of capacity for property risks related to Canada’s oil sands is creating a new challenge for brokers trying to place insurance for oil and gas clients, a broker executive reports. Some insurers have taken positions that they will no longer write insurance for a corporation if a certain percentage […]

3 min read