Legal Blog
Go-kart is an automobile
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Adams v. Pineland Amusements Ltd. et al. (2006) the party had been injured on a go-kart. The Defendant insurance company brought a motion to the court for a determination of a question of law. In addition, the court was also required to determine whether a go-kart was considered an automobile.
The court discussed the test to be used in determine whether a vehicle is an automobile:
A number of cases have established the following approach is to be taken in deciding whether a particular vehicle is an "automobile":
Is the vehicle an "automobile" in "ordinary parlance"?
If not, is the vehicle defined as an "automobile" in the wording of the insurance policy?
If not, is the vehicle an "automobile" within the enlarged definition of automobile in any relevant statute?
In the end the court held:
As a go-kart is not, in ordinary parlance, an "automobile", and since "automobile" is not defined in the insurance policy, the question is whether a go-kart is an "automobile" within the enlarged definition of "automobile" in any relevant statute. Section 224(1) of the Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. I.8 provides that "automobile" includes a motor vehicle required under any Act to be insured under a motor vehicle liability policy. Vehicles that are not, in ordinary parlance, "automobiles", are automobiles if they are motor vehicles required to be insured. Section 1(1) of the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.25 ("CAIA") defines "motor vehicle" to have the same meaning as in the Highway Traffic Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8 ("HTA"). The HTA definition of "motor vehicle" includes "any other vehicle propelled or driven otherwise than by muscular power". A go-kart, then, is a "motor vehicle" within the HTA definition. Section 2(1) of the CAIA provides that no owner or lessee of a motor vehicle shall operate the motor vehicle, or cause or permit the motor vehicle to be operated, on a highway unless the motor vehicle is insured under a contract of automobile insurance. If operated on a highway, then, a go-kart would require insurance under s. 2(1) of the CAIA. Therefore, it is an automobile.