Car insurance claims in Manitoba

Manitoba settled its motor-injury question in one sentence and has not moved since. Part 2 of The Manitoba Public Insurance Corporation Act is headed «Universal Bodily Injury Compensation», and s. 73 says that «compensation is payable under this Part by the corporation, regardless of who is responsible for the accident». Section 72 then removes the alternative: «notwithstanding the provisions of any other Act, compensation under this Part stands in lieu of all rights and remedies arising out of bodily injuries to which this Part applies and no action in that respect may be admitted before any court». There is no verbal threshold, no monetary threshold and no election — the scheme, known in practice as the Personal Injury Protection Plan, is the whole of a Manitoban’s injury remedy, and Manitoba Public Insurance «has exclusive jurisdiction» over entitlement (s. 169(1)).

Because there is no lawsuit to start, the date that matters for injury is the claim date, not a limitation date. A claim must be made within two years of the accident, or within two years of the day a practitioner first observes symptoms of an injury that was not apparent immediately after the crash (s. 141(1)); a death claim runs two years from the death (s. 141(2)); and a claimant who was a minor on the date of the accident has two years from turning eighteen (s. 141(3)). MPI may waive a time limit where satisfied there was a reasonable excuse, but that is a discretion and not an entitlement (s. 141(5)). Every decision on a claim «shall be given to the claimant in writing, and shall include reasons» (s. 170(1)). From there the ladder is fixed: sixty days to apply in writing for an internal review, to which «the corporation shall respond … within 30 days» (s. 172(1), (3)), written reasons for the review decision (s. 173(2)), and ninety days to appeal to the Automobile Injury Compensation Appeal Commission or such further time as the commission allows (s. 174(1)).

Property damage stayed in the ordinary law, so the general statutes still do work. Contributory negligence «is not a bar to the recovery of damages», and where the plaintiff’s negligence contributed «the court shall apportion the damages in proportion to the degree of negligence found against the plaintiff and defendant respectively» (Tortfeasors and Contributory Negligence Act, s. 4); where apportionment is not practicable the parties «shall be deemed equally negligent» (s. 6), and two or more negligent defendants are jointly and severally liable for the whole of the damages apportioned against them (s. 5). A proceeding must be commenced within two years of the day the claim is discovered (Limitations Act, s. 6), discovery being the first day the claimant knew or ought to have known that loss occurred, that an act or omission caused it, whose act it was, and that a proceeding would be an appropriate remedy (s. 7) — and the claimant carries the burden of proving the proceeding was in time (s. 9). Fifteen years after the act or omission, the claim is gone regardless (s. 10(1)).

Manitoba’s compulsory cover sits well above the $200,000 required in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The Automobile Insurance Coverage Regulation caps MPI’s liability at «$500,000 in aggregate, exclusive of costs», for bodily injury, death and property damage arising out of any one accident, with property claims taking priority to the extent of $50,000 (Man. Reg. 290/88 R, s. 117(1)); the buy-up classes are defined as extensions «from $500,000» to one, two or five million (ss. 127(1), 133). The same regulation builds in underinsured-motorist protection: MPI indemnifies an eligible claimant for what they are legally entitled to recover from an underinsured motorist, up to «the amount by which $500,000 exceeds the total of all limits» carried by that motorist, for accidents in Canada or the United States (ss. 152, 153). At the scene, a driver involved in an accident — defined broadly enough to include striking an animal or an object — must stop and, «without delay», give name, address, licence and registration particulars and the liability policy number and insurer to the other driver, to anyone injured and to anyone whose property was damaged (Highway Traffic Act, s. 155(1)–(5)). A police report is required within seven days where the driver could not give a peace officer that information at the scene and one of the s. 155(7) criteria applies — among them that someone was admitted to hospital, that an injured person has died, or that another driver was unlicensed (s. 155(6)–(8)). The trigger is those criteria and not a dollar amount; no reporting threshold exists in the section and none is stated here. Appeals on the injury side go to the Automobile Injury Compensation Appeal Commission, whose own web page could not be reached, so no complaint link is published. Whether any provision fixes a time for MPI to decide a claim in the first instance, and whether diminished value is recoverable, have not yet been verified against a primary text and are not stated here.