Erica Lewin

The plaintiff brought a motion seeking various forms of relief, including advance legal costs, payment of living expenses, reimbursement of social services, waiver of Rules of Civil Procedure, ongoing accommodation, anonymization of proceedings, driver's license renewal, and a court investigation into systemic racism.

The court dismissed all aspects of the plaintiff's motion, finding that the claims for advance payments did not meet the Law v. Canada test for discrimination under the Charter, and the request for advance legal costs did not meet the British Columbia (Ministry of Forests) v. Okanagan Indian Band three-part test for interim costs in exceptional cases, particularly as contingent fee arrangements are available in personal injury litigation.

An insurer mistakenly believed that a snowmobile was not covered under its automobile insurance policy and persuaded the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Fund to accept responsibility for paying statutory accident benefits to an injured passenger.

When the coverage error was discovered, the Fund sought reimbursement and the insurer refused, arguing that the Fund had lost its ability to contest priority once it accepted responsibility.

The arbitrator found the insurer was the priority insurer and ordered reimbursement.

The Court of Appeal upheld the decision, holding that the Fund is not an ordinary insurer in priority disputes under the Regulation and is entitled to resile from its acceptance of priority.

The court also clarified that section 7(6) of the Regulation permits an arbitrator to order full reimbursement of benefits paid, not merely impose sanctions.

The applicant was injured in a motor vehicle accident while working as a truck driver.

He commenced a tort action and applied for statutory accident benefits.

The insurer argued that the applicant was statute-barred from proceeding to arbitration under s. 61 of the Schedule because he was entitled to WSIB benefits and his tort action was not bona fide.

The arbitrator found that the tort action was instituted bona fide and not primarily for the purpose of claiming statutory accident benefits.

The applicant was therefore not statute-barred from proceeding to arbitration.