Legal & Industry Insights
Detailed insider views on legal trends and outcomes.
Graul v. Kansal – An Abundance of Teaching Moments
The recent decision of Justice Lemon in Graul v. Kansal weighs in at 182 pages and comes with plenty of teaching moments about defending personal injury claims, weighing the strengths and weaknesses of a claim and the uncertainty of trials. The plaintiff came to the case as a 52 year old husband and father of 3 grown children. He had a lengthy work history in a supervisory capacity with the City of Guelph working at the Guelph wastewater treatment plant. The decision depicts an individual who lived a full life before the accident – earning $100,000 per year in a job he enjoyed, active in sports and recreational activities and an engaged father and husband who enjoyed excellent health. After the accident, he did not return to work and his recreational pursuits and social life were significantly curtailed. The plaintiff, supported by his doctors and experts retained in the litigation, alleged that he suffered a mild traumatic brain injury with a constellation of related and other...
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda – Equitable Subrogation and Mortgage Priorities
The Court of Appeal’s reasons in L-Jalco Holdings v. MacPherson reminds us that the concept of subrogation extends beyond the realm of insurance and into the realm of mortgage priority claims. In L-Jalco, the plaintiff lender advanced funds to a property owner who discharged only one of two...
Garage Owner Not Liable for Brain Injury Suffered by Teenage Car Thief
Two teenagers, C.C. and J.J., who had been drinking and smoking marijuana decided to go out after midnight to steal valuables from unlocked cars. They ended up at the defendant’s unsecured garage and found an unlocked car with keys in the ashtray. C.C. and J.J. decided to steal the car and...
Notwithstanding the Covenant to Insure
For those keeping score, subrogating insurers have been coming up on the short end of the stick in cases involving commercial leases. The Court of Appeal’s decision in Royal Host v. 1842259 Ontario (released May 18, 2018) goes the other way in permitting an insurer of a landlord to advance...
Threshold Motion Decision and Jury’s Verdict
In Debruge v. Arnold , the plaintiff appealed the decision of the trial judge on the defendant’s threshold motion. One of the grounds of appeal was whether the trial judge erred by granting the defendant’s threshold motion after receiving a jury verdict which implicitly concluded that the...
What’s Reasonable?
What’s Reasonable? That is of course a subjective question and one that you won’t find an explicit answer for in the case of Konopka v. Traders. However, you will read about what is not considered to be reasonable conduct in the context of an OAP 1 policy breach. In Konopka, the elderly...
The Tale of Red’s Pub – Risk Allocation in Commercial Leases
In Youn v 1427062 Alberta Ltd. , the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench considered risk shifting in the context of a commercial lease. In this subrogated matter, the appellant landlord owned a commercial property that included the respondent’s pub, Red’s Pub, and neighbouring businesses. A fire...
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