John J. Lawlor

The applicant, a self-employed vendor of cosmetic products, was injured in a motor vehicle accident and claimed weekly income benefits at the maximum rate of $600.00 per week.

The insurer disputed the applicant's documentation of his earnings and paid $252.00 per week.

At arbitration, the arbitrator found the applicant's evidence regarding his sales and profits to be contradictory, unreliable, and largely unsubstantiated.

Relying only on objectively verifiable documentation, the arbitrator calculated the applicant's gross weekly income to be $232.00, entitling him to the statutory minimum benefit of $185.00 per week.

The applicant was ordered to repay the insurer the $67.00 weekly overpayment.

The appellant sought foreclosure on a mortgage executed by the respondents.

The respondents had signed the mortgage without reading it, relying on a third party's misrepresentation that it was a minor amendment to an existing mortgage.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that the defence of non est factum is not available to a person who fails to exercise reasonable care in signing a document, as against an innocent party who relies on that document in good faith and for value.

The appeal was allowed and the previous Supreme Court decision in Prudential Trust Co. Ltd. v. Cugnet was overturned.