Client Loses Lawsuit Arising from Automatic Policy Renewal. | GTAMotorcycle.com

Client Loses Lawsuit Arising from Automatic Policy Renewal.

Avi Singh

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A motorcyclist who tried to sue his insurer for renewing his policy and deducting money from his account will not have his case heard before the Supreme Court of Canada.

The top court announced Jan. 31 it has turned down an application from Oliver Bajor to hear an appeal of an Ontario court ruling in favour of TD Meloche Monnex.

Bajor was paying his premium through pre-authorized debit. He unsuccessfully sued TD Meloche Monnex, which started insuring Bajor’s motorcycle in February 2012. TD renewed Bajor’s insurance in February 2013 and again in February 2014.


TD obtained $226.16 from Bajor’s bank account in an automated withdrawal on Mar. 10 2014. In the middle of March, Bajor called the insurer and cancelled his policy. TD returned the $226.16 to Bajor on Mar. 27, 2014.

But Bajor took TD to court, asking for an award of $25,000. Bajor essentially argued that TD should not have withdrawn the money in the first place because Bajor had not explicitly agreed to renew the policy.

A Small Claims Court judge disagreed. That ruling was upheld by Divisional Court in 2017. The Court of Appeal for Ontario denied leave to appeal, so Bajor applied in 2018 for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The “accepted practice in Ontario,” which is intended to protect the client, is to keep an insurance policy in force until it is cancelled, Judge Elizabeth Stewart of Divisional Court wrote in Bajor v. TD Meloche Monnex, released April 12, 2017.

“Such cancellation must be clear, unconditional and unequivocal,” added Judge Stewart, citing Bolton Estate v. Allstate Insurance Co. of Canada released by Ontario Court General Division in 1995.

Judge Stewart ordered Bajor to reimburse TD nearly $1,900 in legal fees.

TD sent Bajor a policy renewal package in December, 2013, Stewart noted. TD told Bajor his policy would be automatically renewed Feb. 9. 2014. Included in the package was a cancellation request form, which TD did not receive from Bajor.

“In January and February 2014, Bajor sent emails to [Meloche Monnex] concerning some pricing and renewal concerns,” judge Stewart wrote.

The insurer “responded by providing Bajor with details of his coverage.”

The 1995 decision Bolton Estate v. Allstate arose 1994 after a life insurance client died Aug. 19, 1994 in an airplane accident. Four days earlier, premiums were deducted from the client’s account, at which point the customer prepared a letter requesting the policy by cancelled. The letter was mailed the day before the client died. The court ruled the policy was in effect until Sept. 15, 1994. Although the Aug. 15 letter made clear that the policy was to be cancelled at some point in the future, it was “not a clear, unconditional and unequivocal offer to cancel the policy effective August 15, 1994.”

https://www.canadianunderwriter.ca/...ing-from-automatic-policy-renewal-1004156218/
 
If I'm reading this right, this guy was looking for a payday. TD even refunded his money, he has no case.
 
Doesn't appear he had a snowball's chance, BUT.....let's give credit where credit is due.
How many threads (at least 2 current) on this site are about ins companies being thieves, bandits, etc, etc?
How often do any of those posters take any action?
Good on this guy for trying!!
I'm not going to start it, but if there's a go fund me for his $1900 legal bill, I'd help out.
 
The rest of the tens of thousands that the insurance company spent on lawyers will already be paid by the rest of us. I'm with JavaFan.
 
He got the withdrawal refunded and then wanted more? No case. He better hope the ins. co doesn't go after him for legal costs to fight his frivolous case.
 
JavaFan has it right. It's easy to say "I didn't explicitly say renew" but what if the insured just forgot to renew and had an at fault a day or two after expiry. The automatic renewal protects the insured. The automatic renewal also protects people losing cognitive ability, lost in the mail etc. Automatic renewal is about the only thing right with our insurance.

If you had funds wrongly taken out of your account all you have to do is prove to the insurer that they were never at risk. Show them a policy with another company or that you sold the vehicle etc. and you get a refund.

Gofundyourself on this one.
 
The insurer was awarded $1,900 in legal fees by the court. TD will be happy with that. They likely had some just out of law school junior lawyer handle the case, and his salary was likely covered by the $1,900.

Plaintiff, was a jack wagon, looking to get a payout, when none was coming, he wasted the time of several courts. I wonder how much HIS legal fees were. Yes he likely handled the Small Claims portion himself, but once he began appeals, he likely had to hire a lawyer, (it is as simple as filling out a single form, and firing it off).

He got the withdrawal refunded and then wanted more? No case. He better hope the ins. co doesn't go after him for legal costs to fight his frivolous case.
 
If I'm reading this right, this guy was looking for a payday. TD even refunded his money, he has no case.
LOL I was on Bajor's side until I heard that TD returned his money 3 days later but yet he wanted $25,000 in damages.... screw off Bajor! Don't be a *********.
 
thats insane, it would I wonder if he used a lawyer to file suit against TD? And how much that ended up costing him?
 
TD only got $1,900 for costs in what was clearly a frivolous action. Having worked in Life and health insurance for almost 10 years, I can confidently say they spent far more than that working on this (in terms of labour and time).

Astonishing really. One thing I learned is that people do not read their policies or even basic communications from the insurance company.

Personally,I have always found TD Meloche and Monnex perfectly reasonable to deal with (I'm claim free though). Had multiple lines of insurance with them for over 10 years.
 

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