Alfons Rranxburgaj v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 2014 ONFSCDRS 110

Financial Services Commission des

Commission services financiers

of Ontario de l’Ontario

Neutral Citation: 2014 ONFSCDRS 110

FSCO A12-001880

BETWEEN:

ALFONS RRANXBURGAJ

Applicant

and

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE

INSURANCE COMPANY

Insurer

DECISION ON EXPENSES

Before: Edward Lee

Heard: By written submissions May 22, 2014

Appearances: No one made representations for Mr. Rranxburgaj

Candy Cheung for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

The Applicant, Alfons Rranxburgaj, made a claim for accident benefits. In a decision dated January 21, 2014, I dismissed his claim for statutory accident benefits under the Schedule.¹ I reserved on the issue of expenses.

The issue in this further hearing is:

Is State Farm entitled to their expenses incurred in respect of this arbitration hearing?
If the answer to the first question is ‘yes’, what is the amount of expense to which State Farm is entitled?

Result:

State Farm is entitled to expenses incurred in respect of this hearing.
State Farm is entitled to $1,750.00 as expenses in respect of this arbitration hearing, inclusive of all costs, disbursements, and taxes.

EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS:

A pre-hearing discussion was conducted in this matter on February 20, 2013 by Arbitrator Muzzi. A six-day hearing was scheduled that day to commence on January 20, 2014. On November 20, 2013, Mr. Rranxburgaj’s counsel brought a motion to be removed from the record. Arbitrator Muzzi heard that motion and permitted Mr. Rranxburgaj’s counsel to be removed from the record. On the same date, Arbitrator Muzzi heard an order for productions brought by State Farm and ordered those productions.

On January 20, 2014, I presided at the hearing in this matter. Neither Mr. Rranxburgaj nor any counsel purporting to represent him appeared. State Farm was represented by Mr. Jonathan Schreider. On that date I dismissed Mr. Rranxburgaj’s application and gave the parties thirty days to provide me with any documentation, submissions and evidence in regard to the issue of expenses. Mr. Rranxburgaj provided nothing, but State Farm filed submissions and evidence on January 29, 2014.

ANALYSIS:

State Farm was entirely successful in this matter and they are entitled to expenses. Arbitral case law has held that the overriding consideration in fixing arbitration expenses is reasonableness. It is appropriate to take a broad-minded, pragmatic approach.²

In the present case, State Farm appeared at the offices of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario on three occasions in total. None of these appearances lasted more than two-and-a-half hours. No actual arbitration hearing was ever conducted as neither Mr. Rranxburgaj nor any counsel appeared. Having regard to the total time spent by counsel, legal assistants, and others in the preparation and conduct of this file, I find it reasonable to award $1,750.00 to State Farm as expenses, inclusive of all disbursements, costs, and taxes.

July 3, 2014

Edward Lee Arbitrator

Date