What happened: An Ontario court dismissed a policyholder’s $8,000 vehicle top-up claim, filed years past the one-year auto insurance deadline.
Who’s involved: Desjardins Insurance Company and an auto policyholder
What’s at stake: $8,000 in disputed top-up payments, plus $5,000 in costs awarded to Desjardins
Why it matters: Ontario’s one-year auto deadline runs from the date of loss, not the date a claim is denied - even when a top-up was promised
Where it stands: Summary judgment granted, claim dismissed on November 9, 2026
The lawsuit asked for two million dollars - but by the time it reached a courtroom, the real fight was over eight thousand.
An Ontario policyholder involved in an April 2022 motor vehicle accident submitted a property damage claim to Desjardins Insurance Company. After commissioning a valuation, Desjardins offered $62,276.22 and told the policyholder that if he bought a replacement vehicle costing more, the insurer would cover the difference - a top-up payment.
He accepted the $62,276.22 and signed over ownership of his vehicle in June 2022.
Then he waited.
In October 2024, the policyholder bought a replacement of the same make and model and sent the invoice to Desjardins requesting the top-up. Desjardins denied the claim in February 2025, saying the deadline to sue had passed.
He filed a statement of claim - initially for $2 million, though his counsel conceded at the hearing that the real dispute was the $8,000 gap between the valuation payout and the cost of the new vehicle.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled without a trial, dismissing the claim. The court pointed to Ontario’s auto insurance regulations, which require any action over vehicle damage to start “within one year next after the happening of the loss and not afterwards.” The accident was in April 2022. The lawsuit landed in May 2025 - more than three years later.
The policyholder argued the clock should not have started until February 6, 2025 - the date Desjardins denied the top-up. His logic: he could not have known he had a claim until the insurer said no.
The court rejected that. The policyholder knew about his loss when it happened and had received payment and the insurer’s position within about 90 days. Nothing Desjardins did after that delayed or discouraged him from acting.
Taking the argument to its logical end, the court noted, would mean that “at any time in his natural life,” the policyholder could buy the same make and model and come back for the top-up - with the deadline not triggered until denial. The court called this “untenable at law, and for other obvious public policy reasons.”
Even if the insurer’s May 2022 offer letter could somehow be read as stretching the deadline, the lawsuit was still filed more than two years from both the date of loss and the letter - beyond even the longer two-year window for personal injury and property damage claims.
The claim was dismissed with $5,000 in costs to Desjardins within 30 days.
The case is a sharp reminder for claims teams handling auto property damage files: a promise to top up later does not pause the clock. The one-year deadline runs from the date of loss, full stop.
This is a decided case. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted summary judgment dismissing the policyholder’s claim on November 9, 2026.
