Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 8 7 I ndividuals whose spouses or former spouses have burned the family home to the ground or otherwise destroyed the joint property in some way will be entitled to coverage from their insurance company under new legislation introduced by the New Brunswick government. Proposed amendments to the Insurance Act would require insurance companies to limit exclusion clauses only to the insured party who was involved in causing the property damage. "Under contacts of insurance, insurers are not liable to compensate the insured for intentional acts of their insured or circumstances where the insured abets or colludes to an intentional act that causes an other- wise insured property loss," says Ray Wagner, a personal injury lawyer in Halifax. Most policies do not differentiate between the insured who carried out the intentional or criminal act and an innocent co-insured whose property was damaged. "This can often be seen in cases of domestic abuse and can make it very difficult for those victims to receive payout on an insurance pol- icy where their partner has damaged the home as a means of retaliation or intimidation," says Alix Saulnier, spokeswoman for the Financial and Consumer Services Commission in Saint John. The proposed amendments, devel- oped in partnership with FCNB, the Office of the Consumer Advocate for Insurance and the Women's Equal- ity Branch, would prevent insurance companies from using exclusions to deny coverage in such cases. The amendments would allow innocent co- insureds to receive their proportional share of compensation. Since the spring, the Insurance Bureau of Canada has been recom- mending that its members pay out claims in such cases even if the policy does not mandate coverage. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec currently have protections in place. "Those protec- tions ought to be in place across the entire country," says IBC president and CEO Don Forgeron. A private member's bill has also been introduced in Ontario to compel insurance companies to pay claims to innocent co-insureds. — DONALEE MOULTON REGIONAL WRAP-UP AT L A N T I C \ AT L A N T I C \ C E N T R A L \ P R A I R I E S \ W E S T NL ESTABLISHES STAND-ALONE APPEAL COURT NB amending insurance rules to protect domestic violence victims F or the first time in its history, Newfoundland and Labrador has a stand- alone appeal court. Until earlier this year, the appeal court had been a divi- sion of the province's Supreme Court. New legislation, the Court of Appeal Act, was prompted in part by a need to ensure the independence of the appeal court was not only a reality but perceived to be so. Being included as part of the Supreme Court could lead peo- ple to believe there was a supportive relationship between the appeal and trial division, says Kendra Wright, assistant deputy minister with the Department of Justice and Public Safety's Courts and Corporate Services unit. "When it comes to the separation of divisions, there might have been a risk [that] there could be a bias to uphold decisions." Newfoundland and Labrador's new judicial structure is not new to the rest of the country. The province is the last jurisdiction in Canada to establish a stand- alone appeal court. Some have done this by creating separate pieces of legisla- tion, as Newfoundland and Labrador did, or by enacting one inclusive piece of legislation as Ontario has done with its Courts of Justice Act. From a practical standpoint, any proceeding previously underway in the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, Court of Appeal, will continue as a proceeding of the Court of Appeal of Newfoundland and Labrador. Any matter referred to the Supreme Court, Trial Division, will now be considered by the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Supreme Court will continue to be composed of a general division and a family division. The realignment of the judicial system will not have an impact on users, including lawyers, says Wright. "Nothing changes from an external perspective." — DM

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