By Ian Carruthers and Noel Harper
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Welcome back to In This Case, and to the new topic we will be exploring over the next few weeks: Service of a Statement of Claim. Today’s question concerns whether an extension is merited under any “special or extraordinary circumstances” that may have come up during the events of a particular case. Here are the key events:
On February 5, 2010, the plaintiff and defendant were involved in a motor vehicle accident, in which the plaintiff was injured.
Upon being notified of the accident, the defendant’s insurance company assigned an adjuster to investigate, and the plaintiff negotiated with this adjuster between February of 2010 and September 20, 2011. On that date, the plaintiff retained a lawyer, having been unable to reach a settlement with the defendant.
On January 27th, 2012, the plaintiff filed a statement of claim and forwarded it to the defendant’s adjuster. This action set the expiry of the time for service as January 27th, 2013.
The adjuster communicated with the plaintiff’s lawyer about the claim – requesting records in support of a settlement proposal the lawyer submitted – on September 17th, October 23rd and December 18th of 2012. By the third request, with the expiry date soon approaching, the adjuster threatened to file a statement of defence.
On April 5th, 2013, the statement of claim was served, more than two months after it expired. The plaintiff applied for an extension to the expiry of time for service on the same day, with the defendant cross-applying for the statement of claim to expire unserved.
Come back on Friday for the solution and a brief explanation of the case in question.