HIGHLIGHTS
- The Manitoba Court of Appeal has dismissed an insurance company's application to dismiss the claims of a Manitoba hog farm which sustained property damage and a number of hog deaths due to suffocation, when the ventilation system in the barn stopped working because a lightning strike to a hydro pole cut off the barn's electrical supply. The insurer argued that the policy only covered property damage and deaths and losses which directly result from specified perils including lightning strikes and that indirect losses, such as losses due to temperature change, are excluded. The insurer also argued that the hog farm could have obtained coverage for power interruptions and suffocation, but that the hog farm did not obtain this rider. The hog barn owner argued that coverage should be provided because there was an unbroken chain of events between the lightning strike and the damage caused to the barn and hogs. The Manitoba Court of Appeal dismissed the insurance company's application for summary judgment on the grounds that the case could not be determined by reading the policy alone, and that a trial would be necessary to elicit additional evidence to assist in interpreting the policy. (Lodge v. Red River Valley Mutual Insurance Co., CALN/2017-059, [2017] M.J. No. 228, Manitoba Court of Appeal)
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