Simon's Legal Resources

Insurance - Common Law

. Trebell v. Canada Life Assurance Company

In Trebell v. Canada Life Assurance Company (Ont CA, 2026) the Ontario Court of Appeal allowed an insurer's appeal, here where "the motion judge granted Mr. Trebell summary judgment against Canada Life for the full amount of the Policy, plus interest, after concluding that “s. 180(1)(c) does not permit Canada Life to reach back into [Ms. Trebell’s] medical records” and raise insurability issues beyond a two-year period specified in s. 184(2) of the Act.".

Here the court considers the role of the common law in insurance:

[48] The place to begin explaining the legislative purpose of Insurance Act provisions is the common law, because the Insurance Act does not codify the whole law of insurance: Saskatchewan River Bungalows v. Maritime Life Assurance Co., 1994 CanLII 100 (SCC), [1994] 2 S.C.R. 490, at p. 505. Instead, the Insurance Act relies heavily on the common law, codifying it and modifying it as necessary: Barbara Billingsley, General Principles of Canadian Insurance Law, 4th ed. (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2026) (online), at §1.01[2].