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Years after the City of Thunder Bay, Ont. added sodium hydroxide to the water supply, two lawsuits are making their way through the legal system related to the chemical that is alleged to have caused pinhole leaks in people's copper pipes. Here's where both cases stand.
Insureds which suffer a loss may find that they are covered by multiple insurance policies for that loss. Such situations can arise inadvertently, or the existence of multiple overlapping policies may be by design. A number of issues may arise with the duty to defend, where there are overlapping or concurrent insurance policies – for example, how courts resolve overlapping or concurrent coverage absent a clause in one or more of the policies that deals with the issue.
Insureds which suffer a loss may find that they are covered by multiple insurance policies for that loss. Such situations can arise inadvertently, or the existence of multiple overlapping policies may be by design. A number of issues may arise with the duty to defend, where there are overlapping or concurrent insurance policies. This article focuses on how courts resolve overlapping coverage where there is one or more 'other insurance' clauses.
Introduction The Ontario Insurance Act requires that every property insurance contract in the province gives the parties a right to require that disagreements about the amount of an insured loss be resolved via an appraisal process.(1) Other provinces' insurance statutes contain similar provisions.(2) However, the principles applicable to appraisals are often not well understood. Northbridge General Insurance Corp v Ashcroft Homes-Capital Hall Inc(3) seems to be the latest example of this. In this case, an Ontario judge terminated an appraisal and, in the course of doing so, reviewed the pri...
Introduction Insurance applications can be challenging. The questions are often ambiguous and remembering every piece of relevant information is difficult. However, being diligent is important, as an insurer may deny coverage of a claim if an insured incorrectly answered a question or failed to disclose material information. On the other hand, insureds should be aware that the courts will scrutinise claims of inadequate disclosure on a reasonableness basis. Typically, insurers cannot rely on answers to ambiguous questions in application materials unless the nature of the risks that those ques...