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The Court of Appeal held that an insurer had no duty to defend a class action arising from a data breach due to an unambiguous data exclusion clause.
The Court of Appeal for Ontario allowed an appeal by an insurer, Co-operators General Insurance Company, finding it had no duty to defend its insureds, Family and Children’s Services of Lanark, Leeds and Grenville (FCS) and Laridae Communications Inc., against a class action and a third-party claim.
The claims arose from a data breach where a confidential report was hacked from FCS's website and posted online.
The court held that the data exclusion clauses in both the Commercial General Liability (CGL) and Professional Liability policies were unambiguous and clearly excluded coverage for claims arising from the electronic distribution or display of data.
The court rejected arguments that the exclusion clauses nullified the policies or that there were non-electronic claims, emphasizing that the substance of the claims solely related to online data dissemination.
Appeal dismissed; trial judge's findings on builder negligence for a missing railing and contributory negligence upheld.
The appellants appealed a trial judgment finding them negligent for failing to provide a required railing, which was determined to be a proximate cause of the respondent's accident.
The trial judge also allocated 33.3% contributory negligence to the respondent.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, holding that the trial judge's conclusions on causation and contributory negligence were fully supported by the evidence and within his discretion.
