Celeste Poltak

The appellants, automobile insurers, appealed the dismissal of their motions to dismiss class proceedings brought by the respondent insureds.

The insureds claimed that the insurers breached statutory condition 6(7) by reducing their actual cash value payments by the policy deductible when taking title to the salvage in total loss claims.

The motion judge, bound by the Court of Appeal's previous decision in McNaughton, dismissed the insurers' motions.

A five-judge panel of the Court of Appeal held that McNaughton was wrongly decided, as statutory condition 6(7) does not quantify the insurer's payment obligation but merely gives the option to acquire salvage.

The Court overruled McNaughton, allowed the appeals, and dismissed the insureds' actions.

The member, an audio-visual technician at a secondary school, pleaded guilty to professional misconduct for bringing an unauthorized cable descrambler to the school and directing custodians to tape movies for him.

The Discipline Committee accepted the Agreed Statement of Facts, found the member guilty of conduct unbecoming a member, and ordered a verbal reprimand.