This is an Alberta automobile insurer’s appeal of a BC Supreme Court ruling on a petition. At issue was an accident in BC in which an Alberta resident was a passenger. The passenger required underinsured motorist protection (UMP) coverage to satisfy her claim. Both the driver’s insurer, ICBC, and the passenger’s own Alberta insurer, Royal Sun & Alliance, provided UMP coverage, but both policies purported to provide excess coverage only. On the petition both pointed to the other insurer as the primary payor. The lower Court held that Royal was the primary insurer, and the Appeal Court upheld the finding that Royal was precluded by BC legislation from enforcing terms different from those mandated under BC’s statutory scheme.
Park v. Insurance Corp. of British Columbia, [2004] B.C.J. No. 2632, British Columbia Court of Appeal