The Supreme Court of Canada announced it will hear an auto liability coverage dispute involving RSA Canada, insurer of a motorcyclist who had alcohol in his system while holding a probationary licence. The motorcyclist, Steven Devecseri, was killed May 29,…

One result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will be liability claims against company boards, property and casualty industry watchers predict. “I think we will see litigation coming out of this,” Shara Roy, a partner with law firm Lenczner Slaght Royce…

Believe it or not, some commercial clients expect business interruption insurance to cover loss of income if the business gets interrupted, even if the cause of the interruption is a pandemic. Regina restaurant owner Thomas Siarkos is one such client.…

Brokers advising commercial clients that business interruption is not usually covered during a pandemic should not be surprised if those clients are hearing something different from their lawyers. “I would caution policyholders to thoroughly review their specific policy language before…

With the Ontario government ordering the closure of bars and nightclubs, this should eliminate – temporarily – one category of commercial liability claim. “I don’t think claims will be launched against commercial hosts at this time,” said Mouna Hanna, an…

Placing surety bonds has become more challenging with the social distancing precautions underway with the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is possible to do this electronically, says an association representing insurers who write surety bonds. Surety bonds can now be placed…

A Calgary homeowner and her tenant are on the hook for more than $20,000 after a waste removal contractor was attacked on the property by a dog. In Malig v. Kaur, released Mar. 16, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled…

If your clients are accused of failing to warn shareholders of the impact of COVID-19, their directors and officers could have liability exposure, experts from Marsh suggest. Generally speaking, directors and officers tend to have the same liability exposure as…

If your clients are sued as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, don’t assume they will be covered by a commercial general liability policy. General liability policies have exclusions; and for COVID-19, the most relevant exclusion is probably pollution, suggested…

If a retail gas station has to remove underground tanks and contaminated soil, is the landlord or tenant responsible for the costs? Much of it depends on the terms of the lease and case law around commercial tenants’ trade fixtures,…

A British Columbia judge should not have used a North Vancouver ski resort’s warning notices to throw a personal injury lawsuit out of court, the province’s appeal court found in a ruling released March 4. In Apps v. Grouse Mountain…

Brokers wanting to advise commercial clients on pollution liability risk might learn a lesson or two from London Transit Commission v. Eaton Industries (Canada) Company, released this past Friday by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. London, Ontario’s city bus…