Sahro Mohamed v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 2016 ONFSCDRS 125

Financial Services Commission des Commission services financiers of Ontario de l’Ontario

Neutral Citation: 2016 ONFSCDRS 125

FSCO A13-010267

BETWEEN:

SAHRO MOHAMED

Applicant

and

STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY

Insurer

REASONS FOR DECISION

Before:

Arbitrator Andrew M. Diamond

Heard:

In person at ADR Chambers on February 16, 2016

Appearances:

Ms. Sahro Mohamed did not participate Ms. Olga Kanevsky participated for Ms. Sahro Mohamed Ms. Susannah Margison participated for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

Issues:

The Applicant, Ms. Sahro Mohamed, alleged that she was injured in a motor vehicle accident on February 3, 2012 and sought accident benefits from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (“State Farm”), payable under the Schedule.¹ The parties were unable to resolve their disputes through mediation, and the Applicant, through her representative, applied for arbitration at the Financial Services Commission of Ontario under the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.8, as amended.

The issues in this Hearing are:

Should the Application for Arbitration be dismissed?
Should the Applicant’s representative be removed from the record?
Is either party entitled to its expenses of the Arbitration?

Result:

The Application for Arbitration fails and is dismissed.
The issue is moot as a result of Issue 1.
The Insurer is entitled to its expenses of the Arbitration in the amount of $1,200.00.

EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS:

The Hearing for this Application for Arbitration was scheduled to commence at 10:00 a.m. on February 16, 2016. While the representative of the Applicant and counsel for State Farm attended, neither the Applicant nor any of her witnesses attended. As a result of the Applicant’s failure to attend, and her representative not being prepared to call evidence, counsel for State Farm requested that the Application for Arbitration be dismissed. I concur with the submissions of counsel for State Farm that in the absence of any explanation as to why the Applicant had failed to attend, the Application for Arbitration should be dismissed.

The representative of the Applicant asked for an Order removing them from the record. Her office had previously made the same request to the Pre-Hearing Arbitrator, who had denied the request as she was of the view such an Order would be prejudicial to the Applicant since the request was, in her opinion, made too close in time to the Arbitration date. In light of my decision to dismiss the Application for Arbitration, the request to be removed from the record is unnecessary.

EXPENSES:

Counsel for State Farm asked for their expenses in the amount of $1,200.00, which they submit is a small fraction of their actual expenses. The Applicant’s representative advised that she had no instructions with respect to State Farm’s request for expenses, and declined to provide a response on the Applicant’s behalf. I find that State Farm’s request for $1,200.00 is more than reasonable, and I order that the Applicant shall pay State Farm $1,200.00 (inclusive of disbursements and HST).

April 25, 2016

Andrew M. Diamond Arbitrator

Date