The claimant sought a special award due to the insurer’s unreasonable delay in paying his IRB. Vice Chair Boyce found that the evidence demonstrated that the insurer withheld and delayed the payment of the claimant’s IRB claim for over one year of his eligibility, despite having all of the documentation reasonably required to initiate and calculate the claim. The insurer failed to communicate with its insured for several months after its section 33 requests were satisfied, did not acknowledge receipt of the documentation, and did not calculate or pay the IRBs. Vice Chair Boyce rejected the insurer’s submission that this was a situation where the insurer simply “got it wrong”, but rather found that this was a situation where the insurer “simply dropped the ball”. As such, he granted a special award representing 25 percent of the total benefits payable due to the insurer’s unreasonable withholding and delay of the payment of the claimant’s IRB.
