Abu-Ain v. Security National Insurance Company et al, 2026 ONSC 1494
Mr. Abu-Ain suffered catastrophic injuries when he was 20 years old in a motor vehicle accident on Highway 401. He did not own a car so did not have personal car insurance, and a priority dispute over who would pay any eligible benefits arose between two insurers, his aunt’s insurance company and the Motor Vehicle Accident Insurance Fund. Despite the priority dispute the LAT went ahead with a preliminary hearing over whether he was an “insured person” and determined that he was not.
The court overturned the LAT decision and sent the matter back to the tribunal. It said that “by proceeding to determine whether Mr. Abu-Ain was an insured person while the priority dispute, centred on this very issue, was pending, was an abuse of process as it undermines the statutory scheme for managing priority disputes… The LAT failed to turn its mind to the fact that the consequences of its decision to proceed with the ‘preliminary issues’ determination was exactly the situation the entire statutory accident benefits scheme is designed to avoid – an injured person being without benefits because of a dispute between insurers about priority. Continuity of benefits while the insurers dispute priority is a cornerstone of the entire legislative scheme.” (Parag 40, 42)