29 results for 'cat:"Insurance" AND cat:"Wrongful Death"'.
Per curiam, the Oklahoma Supreme Court answers the certified question, "Where the passenger was killed in an employer-owned vehicle with liability insurance and has not shown the claim would exceed coverage, but where he also cannot recover under the policy because a worker's compensation provision bars suit against the employer, does that vehicle qualify as an uninsured vehicle?" The vehicle does qualify as an uninsured vehicle.
Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 14, 2024, Case #: 120403, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Workers' Compensation
J. Smith finds the district court improperly found the insurer owed the racing event organizer a duty to defend. The organizer sought legal defense when injured parties and estates of deceased sued after a vehicle careened into the crowd of spectators. A motor vehicle exclusion unambiguously excludes coverage for the damages at issue. The policy is not "illusory," as claimed by the organizer, as it does cover spectator slip and falls. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 23-50336, Categories: insurance, Damages, wrongful Death
J. Mitchell finds that the lower court properly denied the insurer's motion to intervene in a wrongful death action for the sole purpose of seeking a stay of the wrongful death action until a separate declaratory judgment action in federal court could resolve the insurer's duty to indemnify the homeowner. The insurer has no right to intervene in a case in which it lacks a direct interest. Affirmed.
Court: Missouri Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mitchell, Filed On: April 2, 2024, Case #: WD86442, Categories: Civil Procedure, insurance, wrongful Death
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J. Casper partially denies motions to dismiss brought forth by insurance companies against a representative of an estate suing them after her husband, the decedent, was killed due to injuries from a workplace accident and the insurance companies denied the representative’s request for coverage at their full policy limits. The statute of limitations isn’t based on when it became clear to the representative that the insurance companies were liable, but rather upon the insurance companies’ failure to respond to the representative’s settlement demands.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Casper, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv11594, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Premises Liability
J. Biggs grants in part one insurance firm’s motion for summary judgment in a suit where a second insurer sued the first for the partial cost of a fire claim in some underlying suits. Four apartment residents died of smoke inhalation after calling a county emergency communications center and receiving the advice not to open any windows, but to “hunker down” until emergency services arrived. The victims’ families’ sued the communications center and staff for $9 million total, but the first firm refused to contribute to the settlement. Its policy on excess coverage allows it to escape having to contribute more than $1 million on the claim.
Court: USDC Middle District of North Carolina, Judge: Biggs, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv404, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Contract
J. Burroughs grants an insurance company’s motion for judgment on its insured’s breach of contract claim and denies its motion for judgment on its insured’s bad faith claim. The insured failed to demonstrate how the insurance company failed to follow any of its insurance policies by delaying its decision of whether or not to defend the insured while it investigated the related incident and the legal action against the insured.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Burroughs, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv11150, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Contract
J. Burroughs grants an insurance company’s motion for a declaratory judgment exempting it from any obligation to defend a boat owner who approached another boat that struck a navigational aid and caused its passengers to enter the water, including one passenger who drowned, and who left the scene without providing assistance. The boat owner who left the scene failed to sit for an examination under oath.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Burroughs, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv11401, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Maritime, wrongful Death
J. Redford finds that an insurer was improperly granted summary judgment in wrongful death claims brought after both the insured and another driver died in a collision. The policy limited coverage to $250,000 minimums, rather than $50,000 per each alteration to the no-fault act that went into effect in July 2020, and the at-fault driver had not chosen coverage before the policy was issued. Reversed.
Court: Michigan Court of Appeals, Judge: Redford, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 363755, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death
Per curiam, the circuit finds the district court improperly granted the workers' compensation provider's motion for summary judgment in a case where a worker was killed during the building of a hydrocarbon processing facility. The liability provider funded the settlement on behalf of the builder, while the workers' comp provider partially funded it on behalf of the subcontractor. The liability provider has sufficiently alleged the worker was an employee of the subcontractor while simultaneously working for the builder, which satisfies the insurance program's voluntary compensation and employers’ liability endorsement. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 23-20026, Categories: Construction, insurance, wrongful Death
J. Eddins finds the appeals court improperly decided that a defense attorney did not have authority to represent a driver accused of causing a car crash fatal to his passenger. The attorney should not have been disqualified from representing the driver, as defense was originally in place before a jury trial that ended in favor of the passenger’s family without participation by the driver, who had disappeared, or his defense, who had withdrawn due to inconsistencies over if the driver’s insurance had a duty to defend. The defense attorney was implicitly authorized to act on the missing driver’s behalf and had a duty to do so. Vacated.
Court: Hawai'i Supreme Court, Judge: Eddins, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: SCWC-17-666, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Attorney Discipline
J. Hall grants the insurer's motion for summary judgment, ruling it has no duty to defend the policyholders in an underlying wrongful death lawsuit because the claims in the suit, which involve a drug overdose at the covered property, are excluded under the policy's controlled substance exclusion.
Court: USDC Connecticut, Judge: Hall, Filed On: September 26, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv41, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Contract
[Modified.] J. Franson adds a footnote, modifies a few paragraphs and denies a rehearing with no change in judgment. The trial court erred when it reformed a motor vehicle insurance policy, increasing the policy limits from $50,000 to $750,000. The commercial carrier of property, not its insurer, is ultimately responsible for meeting the statutory $750,000 minimum coverage required for a motor carrier permit.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Franson, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: F085014, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death
J. Coleman partially grants an insurance company's motion for summary judgment on insurance pleadings brought by its clients in an underlying wrongful death action. The insurance company has a duty to defend and indemnify its clients in the underlying case, but not necessarily up to a $25,000 sublimit.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Coleman, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv3816, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Indemnification
J. Seeger grants a pair of law firms’ motions to dismiss legal malpractice claims brought against them by the father of a woman who died in a motorcycle crash. The father was unsatisfied with the law firms’ handling of his daughter’s estate, believing they should have sued the driver of the car his daughter collided with rather than settling with the driver’s insurance company. The court finds the firms owed no duty to the father, however, as he was never the court-appointed independent administrator for his daughter’s estate.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Seeger, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv5517, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death, Legal Malpractice
J. Oberto awards $750,000 on an insurer’s counterclaim for a surety bond it paid out to settle wrongful death and workers’ compensation cases. The vehicle at issue was not covered by the insurer's policy per a limitation within the contract and an exclusion, in which any vehicle registered within the U.S. is not covered.
Court: USDC Eastern District of California, Judge: Oberto, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv1018, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Vehicle, wrongful Death
J. Franson finds that the trial court erred when it reformed a motor vehicle insurance policy, increasing the policy limits from $50,000 to $750,000. The commercial carrier of property, not its insurer, is ultimately responsible for meeting the statutory $750,000 minimum coverage required for a motor carrier permit.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Franson, Filed On: August 8, 2023, Case #: F085014, Categories: insurance, wrongful Death
J. Africk denies a request by a woman who shot and killed her husband in 2015 for a Temporary Restraining Order, blocking litigation in state court initiated by his two children over their father’s pension benefits. Whether her killing of her husband was justified has been an issue in state civil actions and federal court, where insurance companies have sought a ruling to determine to whom his insurance proceeds must be paid. After a years-long absence, the woman appears to have turned to federal court only when it appeared that the state litigation would not resolve in her favor. Her request for a TRO is denied based on principles of federalism and out of respect for the state courts’ orders.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Africk, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv3962, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: insurance, Jurisdiction, wrongful Death
J. Garcia grants a motion to dismiss brought by several parties in a wrongful death suit stemming from a car accident after an insurer sued seeking injunctive relief declaring a cap to potential damages. As a state court is already in the process of addressing these questions of liability and damages, the federal court has "no sound legal or factual basis to exercise jurisdiction" over this issue.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Garcia, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv737, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Jurisdiction, wrongful Death
Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the district court properly denied the widower recovery for her husband’s death under ERISA because of an express exclusion of death or injury incurred as a passenger in the type of aircraft in which he died in a crash. The policy exclusion for death or injury incurred in an aircraft other than as a passenger on a regularly scheduled commercial airline is unambiguous. The widower’s voluntary dismissal of her ERISA cause of action waived any claims related to regulatory deficiencies associated with a 2019 summary plan description, which “is silent regarding discretion to decide claims.” Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 22-20516, Categories: Erisa, insurance, wrongful Death
J. Levy enters partial judgment against an insurer and declares it must defend its insured, a subcontractor, along with three additional insureds in an underlying negligence and wrongful death action stemming from a workplace accident that resulted in the death of one laborer and severe injuries to another. The court also orders the insurer to reimburse the additional subcontractors’ insurer for the defense costs already incurred in the underlying action. However, the court finds in favor of the insurer on a crane operator’s claims for coverage, finding it does not qualify as an additional insured.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Levy, Filed On: July 18, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv2249, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: insurance, Negligence, wrongful Death