A pedestrian who took $3,000 cash from an at-fault driver and signed a no-claim promise has lost her bid for accident benefits.
In Borrelli v. Definity Insurance Company, 2026 CanLII 42210, file number 25-009960/AABS, the Ontario Licence Appeal Tribunal barred Olivia Borrelli from pursuing statutory accident benefits against Definity Insurance Company. The May 1, 2026 ruling held that she failed to notify her insurer within the seven-day window required by section 32(1) of the Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule - and that none of her explanations held up.
The case turned on a piece of paper signed at a Tim Hortons.
Borrelli was crossing the intersection of Yorkdale mall road and Dufferin street on January 21, 2023, when a right-turning vehicle struck her. She testified that she "went flying across the street," banged her head on the concrete and briefly lost consciousness. She went on with her plans for the day and attended hospital once the shock wore off.
In the days that followed, the driver reached out and offered to settle. After an initial $1,000 offer, Borrelli met the driver at a Tim Hortons at the end of March 2023 with her father and accepted $3,000 in cash. The document she signed - dated February 20, 2023, and drafted by the driver - released him and his insurer from "all kind of liabilities" and stated that she would not pursue an insurance claim because doing so "would be consider as insurance fraud."
She did not file an OCF-1 application with Definity until August 16, 2024 - roughly 19 months after the accident, and only after she had been terminated from her job as a personal support worker and lost access to her employer's medical benefits. Borrelli said a "random person" on the street had noticed her wobbling, asked if she had been hit by a car, and referred her to a lawyer.
Vice-Chair Trina Morissette was not persuaded. Borrelli argued she had been in a vulnerable position, her mental health was poor, and family circumstances had pressured her, including her father's cancer and her brother's ongoing accident benefits claim. But Morissette noted that Borrelli's own testimony confirmed her father had told her, "Olivia you can call lawyers who can do this." She chose not to.
The Tribunal also flagged that Borrelli had returned to work about a week after the accident, continued working until September 2023, and took two vacations - Miami in July 2023 and the Dominican Republic that December - before notifying Definity.
Citing Horvath and Allstate Insurance Company of Canada, 2003 ONFSCDRS 92 (CanLII), and K.H. v. Northbridge, 2019 CanLII 101613, Morissette wrote that ignorance of the law alone is not a reasonable explanation, submissions are not evidence, and Borrelli had filed no medical documentation. The delay, she added, had prejudiced Definity's ability to obtain contemporaneous medical examinations and records and properly adjust the claim.
Borrelli leaned on Hussein v. Intact Insurance Company, 2025 ONSC 842 (CanLII), which acknowledges consumers are in a vulnerable position immediately after an accident. Morissette accepted the consumer-protection mandate but drew a line: the Schedule, she wrote, "does not allow for an insured to rely on its protections only when their circumstances change."
Borrelli is statute-barred under section 55(1) from continuing her application. The scheduled substantive hearing was vacated.
