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REAL ESTATE Getting insurers to the table Two recent rulings on insurance companies' duty to defend in property damage lawsuits are good news both for construction companies and for those who want to sue them. BY KEVIN MARRON I nsurance companies are most welcome parties in almost any lawsuit. But it's not always easy to get them to the table. That's why two recent court rulings on insurance companies' duty to defend in lawsuits over property damage are good news both for construction companies and for those who want to sue them. "It brings another player to the litigation," says André Legrand, a partner in the Montreal office of Norton Rose OR LLP, referring to a Quebec Superior Court judgment that compels Intact Insurance Co. to defend a company that supplied bricks for an allegedly defective con- struction project. "You have another party here with financial exposure at the very least in terms of defence costs." Real estate and construction liti- gation specialist Stephen Schenke, a Montreal-based partner with McCarthy Tétrault LLP, says: "It's a really big devel- opment because the insurers are always trying to argue coverage and extract themselves completely from the case as soon as they can. . . . It's good news for people involved in the construc- tion industry and for owners who are stipulating that their contractors have to carry adequate insurance. For the defendants it's good news because you can force an insurer to assume your www.CANADIAN Lawyermag.com N O VEMBER / D ECEMBER 2011 27 JEREMy BRUNEEL