First party benefits received by a plaintiff under his own automobile insurance policy are deductible from a tort award arising from the accident that he was injured in

The New Brunswick Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the Plaintiff from a dismissal of his application for an order declaring that no-fault insurance benefits were not deductible from his award for past income loss.

Williams v. Brown, [2006] N.B.J. No. 583, New Brunswick Court of Appeal, J.E. Drapeau C.J.N.B., M.E.L. Larlee and A. Deschênes JJ.A., December 28, 2006

The Insured, a Prince Edward Island resident, was involved in a motor vehicle accident involving the Defendant, a New Brunswick resident. The accident took place in New Brunswick.

At issue in this appeal was whether the Defendant’s Insurer was entitled to deduct from the Plaintiff’s award of damages, those amounts that the Plaintiff’s own Insurer had paid for weekly no-fault benefits in the amount of $38,940.

The trial judge found that the Defendant (i.e. the Defendant’s insurer) was entitled to an offset from the award made to the Plaintiff of the $38,940. The Court of Appeal considered the provisions of the New Brunswick Insurance Act and the provisions of the New Brunswick Motor Vehicle Act and found that, taken together these provisions required a deduction from the Plaintiff’s award for those amounts he had already received from his Insurer as income loss benefits.

The Court of Appeal rejected the Plaintiff’s argument that the provisions in the New Brunswick Insurance Act did not apply to him because the benefits he received were not paid under a contract of automobile insurance made in New Brunswick. The provisions of the New Brunswick Insurance Act regarding no-fault benefits were clearly not limited to situations where the source of the payments for loss of income is a policy of automobile insurance issued in New Brunswick.

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