Dr. Ritter

The applicant, catastrophically impaired following a bus-train collision, sought statutory accident benefits for home modifications, the purchase of a new home, and housekeeping services.

The Tribunal deemed the $166,437.70 home modification expense incurred under s. 3(8) of the Schedule due to the insurer's unreasonable delay and flawed reliance on its assessors, awarding a 25% special award.

The request for $839,104.50 to purchase a new home was dismissed as it exceeded the value of necessary home modifications under s. 16(4)(c).

Housekeeping benefits of $100 per week were granted from February 2019 onwards.

The insurer was found entitled to repayment of an $8,747.42 overpayment of income replacement benefits resulting from a failure to recalculate the benefit when the applicant turned 65.

The defendants brought a motion seeking an order requiring the plaintiff to attend a further independent medical examination by a physiatrist and permitting the resulting expert report to be served after the pre-trial conference.

The plaintiff opposed the request on the basis that it constituted a second medical examination and argued the defendants had not established its necessity.

The court held that the plaintiff’s physiatrist report introduced issues concerning mood, anxiety, and cognitive symptoms that were outside the expertise of the defendants’ orthopaedic surgeon who had previously examined the plaintiff.

Given the differing medical specialties and the need to respond to new issues raised in the plaintiff’s expert evidence, the court exercised its discretion under the Rules of Civil Procedure to order the additional examination.

The plaintiff was ordered to attend the defendants’ physiatrist examination and the expert report was permitted to be served after the pre-trial.