Judge Rules Housekeeping Expenses not Subject to Threshold in Toronto Car Accident Claim

An Ontario judge has ruled in favor of accident victims in a recent decision that allowed a car accident victim to sue for housekeeping and home maintenance expenses, regardless of the severity of her injury.

In Ontario and the GTA (which includes Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Richmond Hills, Scarborough and Markham), insurance companies are protected from certain liabilities stemming from car accident injuries, through legal thresholds that deem victims can only sue for certain types of damages (including pain and suffering) if their injuries are ?serious?, ?important? and ?permanent?.

However Ontario Superior Court Justice George Valin noted that Bill 198 of the Insurance Act, which outlines the serious injury threshold (known also as simply ?the threshold?), makes no mention of housekeeping expenses.? He concluded that had the legislature intended for them to be subject to the threshold ?it could easily have added those claims to the categories of protected claims?.

"It is reasonable to infer that, by not having done so, the legislature intended that the exclusion of claims for future loss of housekeeping and home maintenance services in non-catastrophic cases from the categories of protected claims should stand," wrote Judge Valin.
The news came as a partial victory for the plaintiff, Ms. Sabourin, who suffered whiplash in a Toronto car accident.? She was suing the Toronto Dominion Insurance Company for $562,000, calculated to equal ?the present value of a lifetime of household services?.? Judge Valin determined her ability to conduct her own household duties was only impaired by 12.5 per cent, and awarded her a proportional total of $70,250 in damages.

Judge Valin noted, however, serious difficulties in interpreting the language of the Act, particularly when it came to defining ?important? injuries as those which ?substantially interfere with most of the usual activities of daily living, considering the person's age."? He wrote that Bill 198 fails to contain a list of activities of daily living, nor does it define the word 'most.'