Recent Ruling Reminds Insurers To Act In Good Faith

An Ontario jury has taken the unusual step of imposing $175,000 in punitive damages on insurance companies that denied compensation to a man who lost his home in a fire.Before the jurors came back with their award on April 19, a judge told jurors that punitive damages should only be imposed in exceptional instances of marked misconduct. Abdul Hamid Haji-Fazul, 44, lost his house and all its contents on his then-40-hectare rural property in Stevensville, south of Niagara Falls, Ont., in a fire in April 2011. Haji-Fazul was insured by Lloyd’s Underwriters under Contract PM900 and Sovereign General Insurance Co.