Insurance Law Commons^™

Health Insurance Coverage For High-Cost Health Care: Reflections On The Rainmaker, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

This article reflects upon the film "The Rainmaker" and analyzes how the health insurance coverage problems that it addresses take us to the vortex of some of the most difficult issues facing our nation's health care system.

Principles Of Insurance Coverage: A Guide For The Employment Lawyer, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

Employment lawyers have witnessed a virtual revolution in the law of employment relations during the past thirty years. Although the federal government intervened substantially in private employment relationships in response to the economic catastrophe of the Great Depression, employers remained largely free of regulation until the explosion of statutes and common law developments that commenced in the 1960s and continues today. Recent developments in common law tort and contract principles are particularly troubling for defense counsel in employment matters, since the resulting doctrinal uncertainty renders it difficult to assess the client's exposure with any assurance until the appeals in the …

Medical Malpractice Insurance In The Wake Of Liability Reform, W. Kip Viscusi, Patricia Born

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article examines the effect of the liability reforms on medical malpractice insurance over the 1984-91 period. This is the first study to use data by firm and by state for every firm writing medical malpractice insurance over that time period. The liability reforms increased insurance profitability (that is, decreased the loss ratios), where the main mechanism of influence was through decreasing losses. The quantile regression estimates imply that the greatest effects of liability reform are on the most unprofitable firms and that the effect is not uniform across the entire market. This pattern is consistent with the other principal …

Interpreting Insurance Policies, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Like any other contract, an insurance policy may become the subject of a legal dispute. When disputes arise over insurance coverage, lawyers must combine their skill in contract interpretation with their knowledge of insurance law, bringing both to bear on the special problems related to this type of contract. Each dispute has unique traits, but a few basic ground rules of contract law and insurance law can help you interpret insurance policies and resolve disputes over insurance coverage.

Private Insurance, Social Insurance, And Tort Reform: Toward A New Vision Of Compensation For Illness And Injury, Kenneth S. Abraham, Lance Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

The United States does not have a system for compensating the victims of illness and injury; it has a set of different institutions that provide compensation. We rely on both tort law and giant programs of public and private insurance to compensate the victims of illness and injury. These institutions perform related functions, but the relationships among them are far from coherent. Indeed, the institutions sometimes work at cross-purposes, compensating some victims excessively and others not at all.

The absence of a coherent system of compensation is reflected even in suggested reforms of existing institutions. Proposals to reform tort law …

Judicial Rationales In Insurance Law: Dusting Off The Formal For The Function, Peter N. Swisher

Law Faculty Publications

The purpose of this Article is to demonstrate that there is indeed a great deal of method within this apparent judicial 'hiadness" if one properly understands and appreciates the two competing theories of Judicial Formalism versus Judicial Functionalism in an insurance law context. And with a proper understanding of these two competing judicial theories, numerous apparent inconsistencies in insurance law decisions may be reconciled within each particular theoretical framework.

Accordingly, this Article will present a general overview of these two competing theories of American jurisprudence, and then discuss their conflicting applications in various insurance law decisions by utilizing a number …

Statutory Prohibitions On The Negotiation Of Insurance Agent Commissions: Substantive Due Process Review Under State Constitutions, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Reginald L. Robinson

Faculty Publications

In Part I, this Article examines and categorizes the state statutes that prohibit an insurance agent from returning a portion of his commission for the sale of the policy to the consumer. Part II discusses substantive due process' in the state courts. After briefly summarizing the rise and fall of federal substantive due process, this part explores the use of state constitutions as independent constitutional authority in the area of economic regulation. This part concludes that two distinct models of substantive due process analysis exist in the state courts. Part III comments on two recent cases where the validity of …

New Developments In Kansas Insurance Law, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

Since 1959 the Kansas Law Review has encouraged commentary on recent developments in Kansas insurance law. This article continues this tradition, examining developments that have occurred during the last five years.

Insurance In The People's Republic Of China: Laws And Practice, Henry R. Zheng

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The insurance industry in the People's Republic of China (PRC) has expanded rapidly during the past several years. Since the end of 1979 when domestic insurance was reestablished, the income generated from insurance business has been increasing at a rate of over forty-four percent annually.' By early 1987, over 500,000 enterprises and business entities utilized property insurance and about 34 million people purchased personal insurance; during the first half of 1986 the total insurance earnings from the People's Insurance Company of China alone reached a record high of over 2.33 billion yuan. In the meantime, the insurance business has become …

The Determinants Of The Disposition Of Product Liability Claims And Compensation For Bodily Injury, W. Kip Viscusi

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The frequency and severity of products liability lawsuits have become a matter of increasing importance and concern to the public at large and to American business in particular. The number of product liability cases filed each year escalated dramatically in the 1970s both in absolute terms and as a fraction of all civil cases.' The economic incentives for safety created by these product liability claims no longer are a minor concern but are now a fundamental influence on the economic environment of the firm. In recent years many larger firms have established corporate product safety offices to integrate these product …

Remedying Insurers' Bad Faith Contract Performance: A Reassessment, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

This article examines the implications of the differing remedies provided by tort and contract law. Part I describes the traditional major duties owed by an insurer to an insured and outlines the remedies currently provided in most jurisdictions for the breach of these duties. Part II gives special attention to the insurer's implied duty of good faith and fair dealing; it reviews the historical origins of the duty and describes the alternative ways to categorize it. Part III argues that the duty of good faith and fair dealing should be treated as a contract duty, but that courts should administer …

Kentucky Law Survey: Insurance, Tama Kirby Knapp

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Justifying Unisex Insurance: Another Perspective, Robert H. Jerry Ii, Kyle B. Mansfield

Faculty Publications

This Article contends that gender is an impermissible basis for calculating insurance premiums and payments. Although this Article agrees with the arguments of those who share this view, it offers a different justification for eliminating gender discrimination in insurance. Part I of this Article briefly reviews the status of existing restrictions on gender discrimination in insurance. Part II examines the issues involved in gender-based insurance rating from the perspective of both insurers and advocates of individual equality. Part III presents a new justification for unisex insurance.

Recent Developments In Kansas Insurance Law: A Survey, Some Analysis, And Some Suggestions, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

For most of us the "small world" of insurance law, as it reflects and responds to changes in the "larger world," is also becoming increasingly complex. Part I of this article discusses cases involving questions of contract formation and termination; Part II concerns issues involving the performance of obligations arising out of the insurance contract; Part III studies several cases involving the construction and interpretation of contract language; Part IV is devoted solely to automobile insurance issues; finally, Part V discusses a few detached ideas.

Policy Issues In Primary Industries, Zuhayr Mikdashi

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Business and government have espoused a variety of policies to exploit market forces to their advantage. This article explores the policies involved with important issues affecting relationships among protagonists in primary industries and offers some suggestions. The first section deals with "freeing" the supply of key information not normally accessible to less developed countries(LDC's). Sections two and three relate to two aspects of international trade: easing hardships resulting from interruptions in re-source flows; and redistributing gain from resource industries among trading countries. The final two sections of the article deal with development financing, and with the accommodation of foreign investments …

Insurance--Pyramided Recovery Under Multiple Uninsured Motorist Provisions, W. Taylor Boone Jr.

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Agency And Insurance: Should The Defense Of Fraud By Its Own Agent Be Available To An Insurance Company Issuing Automobile Insurance?, J. Dennis Hynes

Publications

No abstract provided.

Punitive Damages: Punishment Of An Insured Defendant?, Carroway V. Johnson, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

The plaintiff sued the defendant for injuries sustained in an automobile collision and was awarded a judgment in the amount of $5,000 actual damages and $1,500 punitive damages. The defendant's insurance company had refused to defend her in that action or to pay the judgment obtained, relying upon an employee exclusion clause in the policy. The plaintiff thereupon sued the defendant on the judgment, this time joining the insurer as a co-defendant, and won a verdict to recover against the insurer the aforesaid amount. The insurance company appealed, questioning its liability for punitive damages.

Liability Insurance And The Rule Of Exclusion In Tort Actions

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Airplane Trip Insurance

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insurance -- 1960 Tennessee Survey, William R. Andersen

Vanderbilt Law Review

One of the most delicate problems in insurance underwriting is that of describing the events whose occurrence is the primary condition of the insurer's obligation to pay. Several interesting cases were decided during the survey period involving disputes over whether or not an insured event had occurred.

Insurance Coverage Against Explosion Damage, William C. Brewer Jr.

Vanderbilt Law Review

Astronomers tell us that the world began with an explosion, and common sense tells us that it may end with one. Today, the explosion is the symbol of the corruption of knowledge. It has always suggested the devastation of property and the tragedy of death, reminding us that man is never in full control of the forces he has loosed for his material benefit. When accidental explosion became frequent enough for consideration by actuaries, it became a natural subject for insurance. It is proposed here to survey the contractual provisions under which explosion may be insured, and to examine briefly …

Insurance -- 1957 Tennessee Survey, Robert W. Sturdivant

Vanderbilt Law Review

The case of Lee v. Occidental Life Ins. Co.' is one of first impression in this state, and considers the effect of a change in the by-laws and constitution of a labor union--with a corresponding change in coverage under a group insurance policy issued to the union--on the rights of an insured member of the union.

Life, Health and Accident Insurance In Alvis v. Mutual Benefit Health and Acc. Ass'n, the Supreme Court construed certain provisions of a ten-year annual increasing policy issued to the plaintiff's intestate by defendant insuror.

Insurance -- 1956 Tennessee Survey, Robert W. Sturdivant

Vanderbilt Law Review

In Pennsylvania, etc. Ins. Co. v. Homer,' it appeared that Homer had struck a parked vehicle but failed to stop. His identity was later established and he signed a statement admitting that the accident was his fault and assuming all responsibility in connection therewith, including damage to the vehicle and hospital and medical treatment to any person suffering injuries as a result of the accident. It was not until five months after the collision that Homer's insuror received any notice of the accident. The insuror thereupon filed this action in the chancery court for declaratory judgment to determine its rights …

Rights Of Creditors In Insurance -- The Tennessee Exemption Statutes, Paul J. Hartman

Vanderbilt Law Review

The subject of the availability of assets to creditors is important when a trustee in bankruptcy as a representative of creditors is seeking to gather assets to pay off creditors; and the subject is of equal importance where a single creditor, not in a bankruptcy proceeding, is seeking to satisfy his claim out of the assets of his debtor. Whatever is property in the hands of the debtor is available to his creditors, unless it is exempt by law. This property is his estate, considered indifferently from the standpoint of the single creditor who seeks to realize for himself alone, …

A Planner's Primer, William M. Reynolds

Vanderbilt Law Review

Anyone undertaking an assignment to write within a few pages under this comprehensive title must limit his coverage. This general article on a subject as intangible as estate planning omits entirely or gives short treatment to many considerations which may be of great importance to the conscientious planning of relatively complicated estate situations., Emphasis will be placed on the tax aspects of estate planning, particularly federal taxes, but consideration will be given to other aspects which may be of equal or even greater importance. This deliberate emphasis is certainly not intended to add to the misleading impression, too frequently held, …

Life Insurance, The Forbidden Fruit, William J. Rowe

Vanderbilt Law Review

Until recently life insurance has represented the most impenetrable stronghold of the professional tax avoider and his advisors. As a vehicle for the transmission of wealth to future generations with minimum tax levies, it stood unrivaled. During a policyholder's life the value of his policy for gift tax purposes was and is measured by replacement cost.' Under applicable regulations during the thirties, when insurance was transferred by way of inter vivos gift the tremendous increase in value of the policy that came with death escaped gift tax, income tax, and estate tax. But since 1941 the situation has been reversed …

United States Of America V. South-Eastern Underwriters Association, Hugh Evander Willis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.