The Court of Appeal released a new decision on dependency in a
priority dispute between Intact and Allstate, linked below.
The Court of Appeal held that the claimants, a woman (Paula) and
her two children, who moved in with Paula's boyfriend (Kyle)
only seven weeks before the accident, were principally dependent on
Kyle at the time of the accident. Kyle, who was
Allstate's insured, paid for at least 64% of the claimants'
financial needs during the seven weeks before the accident.
The finding of dependency meant that Allstate was responsible
for the payment of accident benefits to the claimants.
The Court of Appeal upheld the Superior Court decision which
overturned the decision of the Arbitrator. The Court of Appeal
disagreed with the Arbitrator's approach which focused on
whether the fairly recent romantic relationship between Paula and
Kyle is likely to be a permanent one. |
