The Court held that the legal cost of obtaining a court order for the appointment of a guardian of property and person for a person impaired catastrophically in a motor vehicle accident, was a “rehabilitation benefit” payable by the person’s insurer under the Ontario Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule

Stukic (Litigation guardian of) v. Personal Insurance Co. of Canada, [2005] O.J. No. 3325, Ontario Superior Court of Justice

The plaintiff was injured catastrophically in a motor vehicle accident. The plaintiff’s mother, on the advice of counsel, applied for, and obtained, an order appointing her as guardian of the plaintiff’s person and property. The plaintiff sought reimbursement of the legal cost for obtaining that order under the Ontario Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule (the “Schedule”). The insurer denied the benefit on the basis that such an expense could not be characterized as a “rehabilitation benefit” based on the wording of section 15 the Schedule.

The Court applied the ejusdem generis rule of statutory interpretation and held that the insurer was liable under s. 15 to pay the expense of obtaining a guardianship order for an insured who was catastrophically impaired and not able to deal with his property or person. In so holding, the Court referred to the purpose tests under s. 15, namely: (1) whether the guardianship order was a measure undertaken “to reduce or eliminate the effects of any disability resulting from the impairment”; and (2) whether the guardianship order was a measure undertaken to “facilitate the insured person’s reintegration into his or her family, the rest of society and the labour market”. The Court found that the one characteristic shared by all or most of the specifically enumerated items in s. 15(5) was that they were goods and services which were not ends in themselves but rather means to other ends. The Court found that the guardianship order was a means of achieving the purposes of s. 15.

The Court dismissed the plaintiff’s claim for punitive and aggravated damages.

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