An insurance firm has been ordered to pay off on hole-in-one insurance for a golf tournament, although the insurance policy was never formally in effect.

B.C. Supreme Court Judge Melnick found Innovators Insurance liable to Kootenay Honda for damages both for breach of contract and for negligent misrepresentation, after it was obliged to give away a free Honda CR-V in a hole-in-one contest. The car was won by Rene Poirier at the Cranbrook Golf Course

The car dealership believed it had purchased an insurance policy protecting it from this possibility from Innovators through its agent Shawn Trimble. After giving away the vehicle, the dealership tried to collect on the policy, only to find out that due to a series of administrative gaffes the policy was never formally put into effect.

Melnick ruled that, “The evidence does establish is that Trimble, on behalf of Innovators Insurance, engaged in sloppy business practice and, in every previous case, had been exceedingly lucky because no one had ever scored a hole-in-one and thus made a demand on the hole-in-one insurance that was presumed in each case to be in place. As I commented during the course of the hearing, there is no easier money for an insurance broker than to issue a policy, and receive a premium, for coverage insuring against an event that is known not to have taken place.”

The judge found that the evidence in the case establishes that Innovators Insurance had a contract to provide Kootenay Honda with a policy of hole-in-one insurance for the sum of $35,000. “It failed to do so and is in breach of that contract. The evidence also establishes that Innovators Insurance was negligent in the representation it made to Kootenay Honda that hole-in-one insurance was in place, a representation upon which Kootenay Honda relied to its detriment.”