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.
Additional insured coverage and multiple insurers: overlapping and common defence coverage internationallawoffice.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from internationallawoffice.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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 principles applicable to appraisals.
Facts
Ashcroft Homes involved a condominium tower built by Ashcroft that caught fire during construction. Northbridge, the insurer for the tower, exercised its right to an appraisal after the parties positions on the extent of the covered loss diverged dramatically.