Tenant’s grow-ops and knowledge: when will your insurance be invalid? Insurance Law

Bahniwal v. The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of British Columbia, 2016 BCSC 422

The plaintiff’s owned and operated a garden center in Oliver, BC, which was severely damaged by fire. The plaintiff’s also operated a residential rental suite on the property. In the course of responding to the fire it was discovered that the rental suite contained a marijuana grow-op conducted by the suite’s tenant.

There was no indication that the fire was at all related to the grow-op, though the cause of the fire was undetermined. The plaintiff’s insurer refused to cover the fire damage on the basis that they believed the plaintiff was aware of the grow-up, but failed to disclose it to the insurer. The insurer maintained that had the grow-up been disclosed they would have declined to renew the plaintiff’s insurance.

Statutory conditions 1 and 4 of fire insurance policies allow the insurer to void the insurance where there is a misrepresentation, or a failure  to disclose a material change to the risk to insured property.

The main issue was whether the evidence supported a finding that the plaintiff was aware of the grow-op either directly, or through her husband. The plaintiff denied any such knowledge.

While neither the plaintiff or her husband conducted period inspections of the suite, they had on one occasion attended to inspect the suite to determine whether it would be suitable for housing seasonal farm workers, and on other occasions attended to complete repairs and modifications to the suite. The evidence supported that the plaintiff’s husband attended the suite roughly every few months, and either entered the suite, or looked in through the window. The plaintiff and the defendant denied that anything ever appeared amiss.

The hydro bills for the suite went directly to the plaintiff’s husband, who then gave them to the tenant to pay. Some of these bills showed substantial fluctuations in the power used by the suite, which a police officer indicated was consistent with a grow-op existing many months before the fire. The husband testified that as the tenant always paid the bills he did not pay attention to the amounts.

Justice Joyce found the plaintiff and her husband to be credible, and accepted their testimony that they were not aware of the grow-op. As such, the insurer was required to honour their insurance contract.

The plaintiff sought punitive damage based, however they were not successful as Justice Joyce found that the insurer had not acted in bad faith, or with undue haste, and that based on the evidence they had a reasonable, though ultimately incorrect, basis for denying coverage.

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Mother denied Father parenting time with their child ordered to pay $2,500 – Family Law

KR v JW, 2016 BCSC 225
This decision of Justice Betton involved an in-depth analysis and application of section 61 of the Family Law Act. Section 61 provides for remedies where one person entitled to parenting time or contact with a child is wrongfully denied that parenting time or contact by a guardian of the child. The section provides for a variety of remedies, which include but are not limited to ordering make-up time with the child or fining the guardian.

In KR v JW, the father claimed that the mother had actively and passively denied him parenting time with their child and that this and other behaviour had led to parental alienation and the child expressing reluctance to spend time with him as a result. The father also claimed that the mother had not done enough to encourage the child to spend time with him.

Justice Betton engaged in a lengthy discussion of the limited case law regarding this section, as well as the purpose and intent of this section. In deciding this case he clarified three important issues regarding the application of this section:
1. The section applies not only to discrete or individual incidents of denial of parenting time but allows the court to make a nuanced examination of patterns of behaviour over time. Even when individual incidents may not necessarily appear to be wrongful denies on their own, a pattern of behaviour by a guardian may still be characterized as wrongful denial.

2. When a child is resistant to parenting time or contact, the court must look at the source of that resistance, as well as examine the guardian’s response to that resistance. If the guardian’s response is not appropriate, such as if they do not adequately encourage the child to spend time with a person entitled to parenting time or contact, this may constitute wrongful denial.

3. Where a person entitled to parenting time or contact with a child agrees or acquiesces to foregoing contact or parenting time in the face of a denial does not in and of itself absolve the guardian from wrongful denial. Ultimately Justice Betton found that there had been a wrongful denial of parenting time by the mother in this case, and ordered that she pay $2,500 to the father for the benefit of the child so as to “impress upon [her] the seriousness of the issue”.

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Heath Law LLP announces the addition of Rick Killough – Team

Rick Killough

The Nanaimo B.C. law firm Heath Law LLP is very pleased to announce that Rick Killough has joined the firm effective February 1, 2016. Mr. Killough will be practicing with the ICBC Insurance Defence (Insurance Litigation) Group.

Rick has practiced for more than 25 years. He spent the first 11 years of practice with Douglas, Symes & Brissenden in Vancouver as an articled student, associate and then partner. He then moved to the Vancouver office of Miller Thomson LLP where he spent the next 15 years as a partner.

In addition to ICBC Defence personal injury litigation, Mr. Killough has also acted for insureds in a wide variety of liability situations, including professional negligence claims, product liability claims and occupier’s liability claims.

Rick is a past Chair, Canadian Bar Association – Insurance Law Subsection (BC Branch). He has appeared numerous times at all levels of court in BC. He was listed in Best Lawyers in Canada, Personal Injury Litigation in 2016. He is a member of the Canadian Defence Lawyers Association and Canadian Bar Association. Contact Rick Killough today.

 

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