The plaintiff was severely injured in a motor vehicle accident while riding as an unbuckled, intoxicated passenger in a taxi cab.
The plaintiff's insurer argued that the taxi driver owed a duty of care to ensure the visibly intoxicated adult passenger was and remained seat belted during the trip.
The Superior Court of Justice applied the Anns/Cooper framework and found no such duty of care exists in Canadian law.
The court held that adult passengers are responsible for their own seat belts, and imposing a positive duty on taxi drivers to monitor intoxicated passengers would be unmanageable and contrary to public policy.
