Maude Lafortune-Bélair Senior Associate

Maude Lafortune-Bélair Senior Associate

Bureau

  • Montréal

Phone number

514 877-3077

Fax

514 871-8977

Bar Admission

  • Québec, 2009

Languages

  • English
  • French

Profile

Senior Associate

Maude Lafortune-Bélair is a member of the Litigation group and practises in the fields of civil liability, product liability, professional liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, as well as damage insurance.

In her product liability practice, Ms. Lafortune-Bélair acts as defense counsel for manufacturers, suppliers, and vendors, either directly or through their insurers. She also advises clients on strategic and risk management issues.

Ms. Lafortune-Bélair has handled numerous files involving vexatious litigants.

Ms. Lafortune-Bélair has given lectures on various subjects related to insurance law, product liability and litigation.

During her university studies, Ms. Lafortune-Bélair made the Dean's Honours list of the faculty of law of the Université de Montréal.

Representative mandates

  • Represent manufacturers in proceedings in which design or manufacturing defects are alleged
  • Represent the interests of manufacturers in the implementation and management of recalls
  • Represent manufacturers in coroner's inquests
  • Represent an excess insurer in a long-term trial involving various technical issues and more than 750 claimants
  • Represent insurers in an important insurance litigation on the determination of the law applicable to insurance policies with respect to claims totalling over $1.5 billion
  • Represent professionals, including hospitals and brokers, in civil courts and coroner's inquests

Publications

  • Prescription extinctive, JurisClasseur Québec – Droit civil collection, Preuve et Procédure, fasc. 22, Montréal, LexisNexis, Canada
  • La Loi canadienne sur la sécurité des produits de consommation: Êtes-vous prêts?, Revue industrie & commerce, September 2011
  • The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act: Are you Ready?, Need to Know , Lavery, de Billy, June 2011
  • Immunité relative, irrecevabilité et quérulence: Est-il suffisant d'alléguer la mauvaise foi?, Droit de savoir, Lavery, de Billy, Marie-Andrée Gagnon and Maude Lafortune-Bélair, March 2010

Education

  • LL.B., Université de Montréal, 2007

Boards and Professional Affiliations

  • Young Bar Association of Montréal
  • Montréal Association of Insurance Women
  • Defense Research Institute
  1. Prescription and Indirect Victims of Bodily Injury: the Supreme Court Rules

    On October 13, 2017, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered an important decision1, putting an end to a jurisprudential and doctrinal debate on civil liability and prescription in the field of municipal liability. Facts In October 2010, Ms. Maria Altragracia Dorval ("Dorval") was murdered by her ex-spouse. The respondents, who were close relatives of Dorval, blamed the police officers of the City of Montreal ("City") for failing to follow up on Dorval's complaints in the weeks preceding her murder. In October 2013, the respondents instituted an action in damages against the City, as principal of the police officers. In a motion to dismiss, the City argued that the six-month time limit for prescription set out in article 586 of the Cities and Towns Act2 ("CTA") applied and that the respondents' action was prescribed. According to the City, the respondents were not direct victims of bodily injury and could nottherefore take advantage of the three-year prescription period set out in article 2930 of the Civil Code of Quebec3 ("C.C.Q."), which states, in particular, that an action based on bodily injury is prescribed by three years, notwithstanding any contrary provision. The respondents, in turn, argued that, even as indirect victims, they did benefit from prescription under article 2930 C.C.Q. on the basis that the purpose of the recourse is to compensate for damages arising from a bodily injury. Issue in dispute Was the respondents' recourse as indirect victims extinguished because they failed to comply with the prescription period of six months under the CTA, or did they also benefit from the three-year prescription period provided in article 2930 C.C.Q.? Case law and doctrine The disputed issue, while dealing with the prescription period, raised the question of how the injury was to be characterized. In this case, did the indirect victims suffer a bodily injury? The issue of characterizing the injury gave rise to two different lines of authority in the case law and doctrine. The first line of authority characterizes the injury, whether it be bodily, moral or material, on the basis of the consequences of the interference suffered by the victim. Thus, it focuses on determining the effects of the wrongful act, downstream, and on characterizing the injury as a function of the damages suffered. In this case, since the damages suffered by the indirect victims were not bodily in nature, they were not victims of bodily injury, but rather, of moral or material injury. The second line of authority characterizes the injury on the basis of the type of interference itself, and therefore upstream. The focus here is on characterizing the wrongful act itself, i.e., whether it pertains to the physical integrity of the person, his or her property, or psychological integrity. Next, the consequences of this interference are characterized as pecuniary or non-pecuniary damages. In this case, given the nature of the interference was a bodily injury, the injuries suffered by the victim's relatives would also be characterized as bodily in nature, causing them pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, depending on the death's impact on those persons. Proceedings in the lower courts The Superior Court granted the City's motion and dismissed the respondents' action, holding that it was prescribed. Following the first line of authority, the court found that only immediate victims can take advantage of the three-year prescription period conferred by article 2930 C.C.Q., since only they have suffered a "bodily injury". The Court of Appeal, following the second line of authority, held instead that the respondents' action was not prescribed. It found that the injury must be characterized according to the type of interference that caused it, and not based on the nature of the damages claimed. Accordingly, since the respondents' action was founded on a bodily injury, it was therefore covered by the three-year prescription period under article 2930 C.C.Q. Supreme Court of Canada In a majority judgment written by Justice Wagner, the Court found that the basis of the action brought by the respondents was the reparation of Dorval's bodily injury resulting from the City's wrongful interference with her physical integrity. It therefore held that article 2930 C.C.Q. must be interpreted in favour of the indirect victims of a bodily injury. In reaching this conclusion, the Supreme Court first considered the decision of the Court of Appeal in the Tarquini case.4 In that matter, the plaintiff claimed damages from the City of Montreal as a result of the death of her spouse in a bicycle accident. As in this case, the City of Montreal pleaded the short prescription period under the CTA. The Court of Appeal found that the plaintiff's recourse was not prescribed on the basis that the bodily injury in question under article 2930 C.C.Q. did not solely contemplate the injury suffered by the immediate victim, but rather, any damages resulting from a bodily injury, including those of indirect victims. Next, the Supreme Court, acknowledging that the expression "bodily injury" must be interpreted as resulting from interference with a person's physical integrity, opted to resolve the issue by reference to the basis of the action as instituted, in accordance with the second line of jurisprudential and doctrinal authority. It submitted that the characterization of the victims' action, whether as direct or indirect, is determined on the basis of the type of interference alleged, whether bodily, material or moral. As for the consequences thereof, they correspond to the heads and the characterization of the damages claimed. The Supreme Court indicated that the purpose of article 2930 C.C.Q. is to protect personal integrity and ensure the full indemnification of victims. Consequently, eliminating the distinction between direct and indirect victims favours the achievement of this objective by conferring on all victims the benefit of an extended prescription period. Furthermore, the Supreme Court was of the view that to distinguish between immediate victims and collateral victims would have the effect of creating two different prescription periods for the same wrongful act. This inconsistency is avoided by favouring a broad interpretation of article 2930 C.C.Q. The Court also noted that, since the Tarquini decision, both the doctrine and case law had preferred this interpretation, favouring the stability of the law. The Court held that "any civil liability action instituted to claim reparation for the direct and immediate consequences of interference with a person’s physical integrity must be based on the obligation to make reparation for bodily injury caused to another"5 within the meaning of article 2930 C.C.Q., whether it be the recourse of the direct victim or indirect victim. Thus, indirect victims are also entitled to the prescription period of three years. Dissent We note that Justices Côté and Brown, preferring the first line of authority referred to above, issued a dissenting opinion. In their opinion, since the respondents were not direct victims of interference with physical integrity, they could not rely on article 2930 C.C.Q. Accordingly, they found that the respondents' action was based instead on the obligation to compensate for the moral and material injury they had suffered as a result of the death of their relative, and not on the bodily injury which was in fact suffered by Dorval alone. Only a person having suffered interference with his or her own physical integrity could benefit from the three-year prescription set out in article 2930 C.C.Q. In our view, the country's highest court has clearly resolved the debate on this issue.   Montréal (Ville de) c. Dorval, 2017 SCC 48 Cities and Towns Act, C.Q.L.R., c. C-19 Civil Code of Quebec, C.Q.L.R., c. CCQ-1991 Montréal (Ville) c. Tarquini, [2001] RJQ 1405 Montréal (Ville de) c. Dorval, 2017 SCC 48, para. 55

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  2. The Canada Consumer Product Safety Act: Are you ready?

    After more than three years of delays, studies and public consultations, the Canada Consumer Product Safety Act came into force on June 20, 2011. The Act imposes new obligations on manufacturers, importers and sellers of consumer products and grants significant powers to Health Canada. It will impact this critical sector of our economy.

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  1. Maude Lafortune-Bélair speaks at the 3rd edition of the Éditions Yvon Blais conference on insurance law

    Maude Lafortune-Bélair, a lawyer of the Litigation and Conflict Resolution group, spoke during the 3rd edition of the conference on insurance law organized by Éditions Yvon Blais, held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Montréal on October 18. Entitled L’exclusion pour actes criminels, her presentation addressed the specific elements to include when drafting and enforcing an exclusion clause for criminal acts. Me Lafortune-Bélair also discussed parallels that could be drawn between similar exclusions, such as those regarding intentional fault.

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  2. The Pierre-Basile-Mignault Moot Court Competition: three prizes for a team supervised by Lavery

    On February 17th and 18th, 2017, the 39th edition of the Pierre-Basile-Mignault pleading competition was held between students from six civil law faculties in Canada. Lavery has been involved in this competition for several years. This year, students from two teams were supervised by four lawyers from the Litigation group: Laurence Bich-Carrière and Maude Lafortune-Bélair for the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) Justin Gravel and Audrey-Julie Dallaire for the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) UQAM’s appellant team won the Yvon Blais Cup, which is awarded to the finalist team. Two members of the UQAM team were awarded prizes for best speaker: Laurence Landry-Plouffe received the Canadian Bar Association Cup, Quebec Division (2nd best) and Mélissa Desgroseillers was the recipient of the Lavery Cup (3rd best). Click here for more information on the Pierre-Basile-Mignault Moot Court Competition.

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  3. Jacques Perron and Maude Lafortune-Bélair participate as jury members on the Droit de Cité radio program on CIBL 101.5FM

    On January 14, 2015, Mr. Jacques Perron, a partner at Lavery, participated as a jury member on the Droit de Cité radio program which airs on CIBL 101.5 FM. The program’s theme was Pour ou contre l’abolition de la notion de sexe en droit?, and the debate centered on the proposed modification of article 71 of the Quebec Civil Code. Previously, on October 1, 2014, Ms. Maude Lafortune-Bélair, a lawyer who works in the firm’s Litigation group, also participated as a jury member on the same program, which is coproduced by the Quebec Bar. For more information or to listen to an MP3 of the program, please click here.

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