The Court of Appeal for Ontario has released a decision dealing
with whether an owner of an ATV can be held vicariously liable for
a driver's negligence, even though no consent was given to
operate the vehicle. The decision is of interest because a
five-member panel of the Court heard the case and overruled a
previous decision of the Court.
In Fernandes v Araujo, Fernandes was seriously injured
while a passenger on an ATV. The ATV was owned by Carlos Almeida
and insured by Allstate. Eliana Araujo was the driver of the ATV;
she had a G1 licence at the time of the accident.
Carlos was fixing a fence on his farm with some of his friends,
including Eliana. Carlos told Eliana that she could drive the ATV
on the farm, while Carlos' cousin, Jean Paul, told Eliana not
to leave the farm on the ATV. Carlos did not expressly forbid
Eliana and Fernandes to leave the farm, although later he said if
Eliana and Fernandes had asked him to leave the property he would
have said no.
