What happened: An Ontario court approved Aviva's $12,375,000 settlement of two COVID-19 business interruption class actions.
Who's involved: Aviva Insurance Company of Canada as defendant; a denturist's professional corporation and a Royal Canadian Legion branch as representative plaintiffs.
What's at stake: $6,862,724.50 for the McCallum class and $5,512,275.50 for the Legion class - $12,375,000 in total.
Why it matters: The settlement signals how outstanding Canadian COVID-19 BI class actions are resolving and at what price.
Where it stands: Settlement approved on October 26, 2026. Orders to follow.
A denturist and a Royal Canadian Legion hall just ended a six-year fight with Aviva - and it cost the insurer more than $12.3 million.
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved the settlement on October 26, 2026, closing out two class actions that began in the early weeks of the pandemic. Both cases turned on the same question: did Aviva owe coverage to policyholders who had been forced to shut down during COVID-19? Aviva said no. Both classes said yes.
The two lead plaintiffs had little in common beyond their insurer. One was Matt McCallum Denturist Professional Corporation, a dental clinic. The other was the Royal Canadian Legion, Victory Branch #317 - a community hall. Both had coverage they believed would pay out if their business was forced to close. Both were denied.
They filed separately in June 2020. The cases were approved to proceed as class actions, discoveries wrapped in early 2025, and a joint trial was set for January 2026. Then settlement talks took over.
The parties spent five days in mediation between June and August 2025, led by a former chief justice of Ontario. Talks continued through a pre-trial conference in December 2025, and on July 2, 2026, both sides signed a settlement agreement covering both classes.
The numbers: $6,862,724.50 for the McCallum class and $5,512,275.50 for the Legion class. Combined, $12,375,000 for policyholders who had been completely shut out of the coverage they purchased for exactly this kind of event - a compelled business closure.
Not a single class member objected to the deal. One objection was filed regarding a proposed $15,000 honorarium for one of the lead plaintiffs, but no one challenged the settlement terms themselves.
Class counsel's fees were approved at 27.5% of the settlement - a contingency rate, meaning the lawyers only got paid if the case succeeded. Ontario courts have consistently approved fees up to 33% in class actions. Fees and disbursements across both actions total roughly $2.98 million before tax. The remaining funds will be distributed proportionally to class members through a claims process administered by MDD Forensic Accountants, with forensic accounting firm Davis Martindale overseeing the accounts.
The court found the settlement fair, reasonable, and in the best interests of both classes. It noted that class counsel funded all six years of litigation out of pocket, and that the lead plaintiffs stepped up during a period of acute financial uncertainty without any expectation of being compensated.
COVID-19 business interruption class actions have been working through Canadian courts for more than six years. For commercial claims teams and underwriters still managing the tail of pandemic-era exposure, this settlement puts a concrete number on how those disputes are landing.
