Can a summary judgment be granted in a personal injury case?

Brown, J., held in the Weyburn Security Bank v. Martin (1915), 1915 CanLII 84 (SK CA), 8 W.W.R. 228, at p. 229: I am not deciding that this is not a good defence; I do not feel called upon to do so on this application. It is sufficient for the purpose of the application if the defendants have a fairly arguable defence. It has been laid down by several authorities that the summary jurisdiction, under which applications of this kind are made, must be used with great care; that a defendant ought not to be shut out from defending unless it is very clear that he has no defence in the action under discussion. Summary judgments should not be granted when there is any serious conflict as to matter of fact, or any real difficulty as to matter of law.

To succeed on this application, the applicant must show that there is a clear admission on the face of which it is impossible for the defendants to succeed. Our rule is identical with the English rule and it has been held that the admissions to be considered are not confined to admissions made on the pleadings and justify the making or giving of an immediate order or judgment when an admission is made by letter of facts which show that the defendant has no defence to the action; Ellis v. Allen, [1914] 1 Chancery 904. In that case, Sargant, J., at page 908, dismissed the argument of counsel that the words .... ‘either on the pleadings, or otherwise’ in the r. 6 meant either on the pleadings or otherwise under this Order .... and granted an order for judgment on the basis of unequivocal admissions in a letter from the defendant’s solicitors to the plaintiff, stating at p. 908-9 of the report: I should be unduly narrowing the meaning of the rule if I did not hold that the admission in this case was within it. The object of the rule was to enable a party to obtain speedy judgment where the other party has made a plain admission entitling the former to succeed. I do not think r. 6 should be confined as suggested. In my Judgment it applied wherever there is a clear admission of facts in the face of which it is impossible for the party making it to succeed.