Marie Lampropoulos

This motion concerned the priority of insurance policies following a motor vehicle accident.

The primary issue was whether a State Farm Personal Liability Umbrella Policy (PLUP) was a primary owner's policy or an excess policy, and its response sequence relative to a State Farm Automobile Policy and an Economical Insurance Automobile Policy.

The court determined that the State Farm PLUP was a true excess policy, not a motor vehicle liability policy under the Insurance Act, and would respond only after the primary coverages of both the State Farm Automobile Policy and the Economical Insurance Automobile Policy were exhausted.

The Economical Insurance Automobile Policy was found to be a primary, first-loss policy, responding alongside the State Farm Automobile Policy.

The applicant sought to withdraw her Application for Arbitration regarding statutory accident benefits after failing to attend an Insurer's Examination.

The insurer opposed the withdrawal, arguing the applicant should be statutorily barred from proceeding to arbitration or the Licence Appeal Tribunal.

The arbitrator permitted the withdrawal of the application on a without costs basis pursuant to Rule 70 of the Dispute Resolution Practice Code, finding no cogent evidence to deny the request made at the pre-hearing stage.

As the application was withdrawn, the issue of whether the applicant was precluded from proceeding to arbitration was moot.

No expenses were awarded.

The parties reached a settlement regarding accident benefits, but the responding party failed to execute the settlement documents for over a year.

The moving party brought a motion to dismiss the application for arbitration and sought costs.

The responding party consented to the dismissal but opposed costs, citing a period of incarceration.

The arbitrator dismissed the application on consent and ordered the responding party to pay $750 in expenses to the moving party for the unnecessary delay and additional proceedings.

In a personal injury action arising from a motor vehicle accident, the defendant moved for production of the plaintiff's workplace harassment complaint file from a non-party employer, contending the records were relevant to damages, causation, and income loss.

The court held that while the records were confidential under workplace policy and privacy legislation, the plaintiff failed to establish common law privilege under the Wigmore criteria.

Applying the non-party production fairness analysis, the court found it would be unfair to require the defendant to proceed to trial without the documents because of their importance, the risk of trial delay, and the limited efficiency of obtaining the equivalent information otherwise.

Unredacted production was ordered from both the plaintiff and the employer, with a limited further examination for discovery permitted.

Following a jury trial for a motor vehicle accident where the plaintiff pedestrian was awarded damages less than the defendant's Rule 49 offer to settle, the court determined the costs payable.

The plaintiff was awarded costs up to the date of the offer, and the defendant was awarded costs thereafter.

The court reduced the defendant's costs due to a late concession on liability and the improper testimony of the defendant's expert witness, resulting in a net costs award payable to the plaintiff.