Zimmer, Duncan & Cole

Is there insurance coverage for the accident?

In this blog, we often try to explain recent court cases and legal issues in plain English. 

Here, we look at the odd situation where an insurance company sues the victim of a car accident.

In most of the cases we see at our office, the damages for a Client’s harms and losses will be paid by an insurance company.  Usually, those insurance companies are not named as “parties” to the lawsuit.  They are just waiting in the wings to write the check. 

One exception is when there are questions about whether there is insurance coverage at all, or whether a different insurance company is on the hook, instead.  In those situations, an insurance company will often file a lawsuit in which the court determines coverage.  That’s what happens in the case handed down yesterday by our state Supreme Court.

The case of State Farm v. Bottger, Kosinski, and AMCO Insurance involves an unusual car accident in Union County.  After a high school “drinking party”, a group of students leaves together in a car. Although they designate a driver, they soon discover the driver is just as drunk as his passengers.  The car crashes into a steep ditch and comes to rest in a corn field.   All of the passengers exit the car, unharmed.  The driver then tries to move the car out of the ditch, even though he is told not to.  He accidentally runs over one of the passengers, pinning her under the vehicle and injuring her.

Since the driver didn’t own the car, the question is, “Whose insurance will cover his carelessness?”  To resolve this question, State Farm then sued the injured passenger, the driver, and the driver’s mother’s insurance company.

The car’s owner had insurance that covered others who drove the car with permission.  However, the driver was told to get out, so the first policy doesn’t cover him.  The driver’s mother had insurance that covered her family members when they drive other vehicles, as long as those family members believed they had permission to drive the car.  The case will be sent back to the trial court to find out if the driver reasonably believed he had permission to drive the vehicle out of the ditch, even though he was told to get out of the car.

*   *   *

If you have a question about the law, your accident, or about a recent court case, please let me know.  I will do my best to answer it with as little “Legal-ese” as possible.  Send me a message through the "Free Consultation" box to the right, or click the "Contact Us" button at the top of the page.