Is a plaintiff entitled to a premium from a private policy of insurance?

67 Moreover, the policy was issued to the plaintiff in return for a premium which he paid. The policy was, in effect, a private insurance policy. In Cunningham v. Wheeler, 1994 CanLII 120 (SCC), [1994] 1 S.C.R. 359, 88 B.C.L.R. (2d) 273 at 396 (S.C.C.), Cory J., writing for the majority, stated that payments received for loss of wages pursuant to a private policy of insurance should not be deducted from the lost wage claim of a plaintiff in the absence of statutory enactments to the contrary. He said: For over a 119 years, the courts of England and Canada have held that payments received for loss of wages pursuant to a private policy of insurance should not be deducted from the lost wages claim of a plaintiff. The first question to be considered is whether the rationale for this exemption persists. In my view there are convincing reasons both for the existence of the policy and for its continuation.