Established Guidelines Or Just Suggestions: Lifting Default Judgment

Under the Rules of Civil Procedure in Prince Edward Island, whether a default judgment can be set aside is a discretionary decision which the court may grant on such terms as are just. The circumstances in which a default judgment may need to be set aside are relatively rare but may arise through inadvertence or failure of an insured to report a claim in a timely manner. Alternately, the insurer may be the respondent in a motion to lift default judgment that was obtained by way of subrogated claim. City of Summerside v Total Machine Works Inc., 2016 PESC 41 [Total Machine Works], is the most recent in a line of PEI cases in which the Court may be progressively marginalizing the role of the guidelines for lifting default judgment established by the case law.