With respect to Causation and Joint Ventures, Justice Lack found that all three motorcyclists were engaged in a joint venture. She concluded that although Mr. Werkmann was the one who was involved in the collision, the negligence of Mr. Mihali and Mr. Nemes was also significant in causing it. Justice Lack found Mr. Mihali and Mr. Nemes were each 25% jointly and severally liable for the plaintiff’s damages and dismissed the claim against Security National Insurance Company on the basis that Mr. Mihali was insured at the time of the collision:
…the three cyclists were engaged in a joint venture to participate in activity that involved driving considerably in excess of the speed limit and breaking other rules of the road. They encouraged and incited one another to do so. Immediately before the collision Mr. Mihali’s action in pulling away at a high rate of speed from Mr. Werkmann implicitly incited Mr. Werkmann to drive at the speed he did in order to follow to Mr. Mihali’s home to get warm. In failing to remain at the scene of the accident, as anyone would whose friend had just been killed, the two cyclists left. I find that they did that because they were conscious of having been, in part, to blame for what had happened. The conduct of the trio in driving in the manner, in which they did, viewed objectively and subjectively, created a grave risk of death or injury to other users of the highway and the loss that Mr. Mallory suffered was within the ambit of that risk and was readily foreseeable by all of them.