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"Insurance Law Update in British Columbia - 2003", Annual Review of Law and Practice (Continuing Legal Education Sociey of British Columbia)
January 2004Insurance Law Chapter (a summary of notable British Columbia insurance decisions in 2003) by Peter Willcock, as published in the Annual Review of Law and Practice (Continuing Legal Education Sociey of British Columbia)
A. Introduction
This paper summarizes notable British Columbia insurance decisions occurring in 2003.
1. The Isurance Act
The related cases of KP Pacific Holdings Ltd. v. Guardian Insurance Company of Canada (2003) 225 D.L.R. (4th) 193 and Gore Mutual Insurance Company v. Churchland (2003) 225 D.L.R. (4th) 202, were heard on February 18, 2003 by the Supreme Court of Canada. The judgment of the court in both cases was delivered by the Chief Justice of Canada. The Reasons for Judgment invite the British Columbia legislature to revise the Insurance Act R.S.B.C. 1996 c. 226 as an Act which was designed to address a paradigm of discreet categories of insurance policies which no longer exist and which is “incapable of incoherently addressing the modern multi-peril policy” (KP Pacific Holdings at p. 200). The issue which arose in both cases was which limitation provision of the Act applies to losses said to arise out of fire insurance policies. Part 5 of the British Columbia Insurance Act R.S.B.C. 1996 c. 226 is the Fire Insurance Part of the Act. It prescribes statutory conditions, one of which, condition 14, provides that the applicable limitation period is one year from the date of the loss. Part 2 of the Act, the General Insurance Part, provides, in s. 24 that every action on a contract shall be commenced within one year after the furnishing of reasonably sufficient proof of a loss or claim under the contract. Part 2 also contains a provision, s. 4, which prevents parties from contracting out of the provisions of the Act except in circumstances where a statutory condition is applicable.
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