Cusinato

The plaintiff, an amateur boxer who suffered a brain injury, sued several defendants.

After pleadings were closed and discoveries commenced, the Public Guardian and Trustee was appointed as litigation guardian and retained new counsel.

The new counsel moved to extend the time for filing a jury notice, which was granted by the master and upheld on appeal.

The defendants appealed to the Divisional Court.

The majority dismissed the appeal, finding no error in principle, no unconscionable delay, and no real possibility of prejudice to the defendants.

A dissenting judge argued that the current case law on late jury notices is flawed and should be changed.

The plaintiffs, the parents and brother of a two-year-old boy who was killed in a motor vehicle accident, brought an action for damages for nervous shock after witnessing his death.

The defendants appealed a ruling that the claim for nervous shock was not barred by s. 266(1) of the Insurance Act.

The Divisional Court allowed the appeal, holding that 'bodily injury' includes psychological injury and that the exception to immunity 'where the injured person has died' applies only to the person who actually died, not to third parties claiming independent nervous shock injuries.