Sakina Naqvi v. TD General Insurance Company, 2018 ONFSCDRS 152

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

Neutral Citation: 2018 ONFSCDRS 152 Appeal: P18-00018 Office of the Director of Arbitrations

Sakina Naqvi, Appellant and TD General Insurance Company, Respondent

Before: Edward Lee Representatives: Ryan O'Connor for Ms. Naqvi Matthew Dugas for TD Hearing Date: On the record

APPEAL ORDER

Under section 283 of the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990 c. I.8 as it read immediately before being amended by Schedule 3 to the Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act, 2014, and Regulation 664, R.R.O. 1990, as amended, it is ordered that:

1. The appeal is dismissed in its entirety.

2. If the parties are unable to agree about expenses of this appeal, an expense hearing may be arranged in accordance with Rule 79 of the Dispute Resolution Practice Code.

Edward Lee Director’s Delegate October 31, 2018

REASONS FOR DECISION

I. NATURE OF THE APPEAL

This matter involves the SABS–2010.¹

This is an appeal of a decision rendered by Arbitrator Anshell (“the Arbitrator”) on February 28, 2018.

For reasons that follow, I am dismissing the appeal.

II. BACKGROUND

Ms. Naqvi (“the Appellant”) was injured in a motor vehicle accident on October 10, 2012 and sought benefits from TD General Insurance Company (“the Respondent”). Disputes arose between the parties and the Appellant applied for arbitration at the Financial Services Commission of Ontario under the Insurance Act, R.S.O., 1990, c. I.8 as amended.

A hearing was scheduled, but before it commenced, the Appellant sought to withdraw her application for arbitration. The Arbitrator allowed the Appellant to withdraw her application, and awarded expenses to the Respondent.

The Appellant now seeks to appeal that decision.

III. ANALYSIS

The Appellant filed a Notice of Appeal from the decision of the Arbitrator on April 3, 2018. I acknowledged the appeal on April 10, 2018 and set out a timetable for the submission of documents for the purposes of the appeal. The Respondent filed its Response to Appeal on May 8, 2018, within the timelines set. The Appellant failed to submit its written appeal submissions by June 11, 2018, the original deadline. On June 12, 2018, The Appellant’s counsel sent a letter stating that they had been unable to meet that deadline because Counsel had “… been travelling,” and requested an extension of time to file their written submissions. On June 19, 2018, I replied to the Appellant’s counsel and granted the Appellant an extension of time to July 3, 2018.

The Appellant failed to meet the new deadline to file their written appeal submissions. On October 2, 2018, I wrote again to the Appellant’s counsel informing him that Ms. Naqvi was still in default of filing her written appeal submissions, and I would dismiss the appeal as abandoned unless I was persuaded otherwise by correspondence received no later than October 12, 2018. To this date, I have received no further correspondence from the Appellant or the Appellant’s counsel.

I am satisfied Ms. Naqvi has abandoned this appeal. Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.

IV. EXPENSES

If the parties are unable to agree about expenses of this appeal, an expense hearing may be arranged in accordance with Rule 79 of the Dispute Resolution Practice Code.

Edward Lee Director’s Delegate October 31, 2018

Footnotes

1. 1The Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule — Effective September 1, 2010, Ontario Regulation 34/10, as amended.