In November 2017, J.E. was walking on a sidewalk in Waterloo when he was injured by a bus stop sign that was protruding into his path. He claimed damages for injuries including concussion, depression and anxiety. In 2023, J.E. was subsequently hospitalized, diagnosed with and treated for schizophrenia.
Court of Appeal Upholds Liability in Complicated Causation Occupiers’ Liability Case
This action arose from a 2014 fatality of a 51-year-old man following a splenic rupture. The plaintiffs were the spouse and sons of a patient who was cleared to return to work in rural Ontario after having been admitted to hospital for abdominal trauma, including a broken rib, from falling at home while doing renovations. The defendants at trial were the general surgeon who saw the patient in hospital and the family physician who saw the patient in follow-up after he was discharged. The patient died of a splenic rupture 14 days after the fall that brought him into the hospital.
In a recent decision, the Licence Appeal Tribunal (the “LAT”) held that the applicant’s concussion removed him from the Minor Injury Guideline (the “MIG”) despite the effective resolution of his concussion symptoms.
On July 26, 2017, the plaintiff, a lawyer for Legal Aid Ontario, submitted a claim for long-term disability benefits (LTDs) to Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (Sun Life), alleging total disability as of April 18, 2017, due to left arm and shoulder pain, anxiety, depression and phantom limb pain. On September 26, 2017, the plaintiff received a letter from Sun Life advising her that her claim for LTDs had not been approved as she did not satisfy the definition of “total disability”.
The applicant, Vinh Thanh Du, was injured in an automobile collision on February 14, 2020. He sought benefits from his car insurer, Economical Insurance. Economical denied treatment plans for physiotherapy and massage therapy on the basis that the applicant’s injuries fall within the Minor Injury Guideline (“MIG”). A claimant is confined to the MIG if they sustain primarily minor injuries in the subject accident.
