Insurance Law Commons^™

Uninsured Motorists Coverage Validity Of Other Insurance Provisions; Curran V. State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co., Dennis J. Fox

Akron Law Review

It was the contention of the defendant-appellant insurers that their liability was limited in both instances by the "other insurance" provisions of their respective policies. These provisions were both "excess insurance" clauses. The Ohio Supreme Court, in ruling upon what it considered to be the sole issue in this case, denied effectiveness to these clauses.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage - Scope Of The Term - "Uninsured Motorist"; Porter V. Empire Fire And Marine Insurance Co., Dennis J. Fox

Akron Law Review

The appellant, James T. Porter, was involved in an automobile accident in which he and four other persons were injured. The tortfeasor was insured to the extent of the statutory minimum ($10,000-$20,000) as provided for by the Arizona Financial Responsibility Act.' The appellant subsequently obtained a judgment against the tortfeasor for $10,000. He then entered into a proposed settlement with the tortfeasor's insurer under which he was to receive $2,500 of the $20,000 of insurance proceeds available for allocation among the injured parties. Mr. Porter notified his insurer (the appellee) of the proposed settlement and requested the appellee satisfy the …

Property Insurance For Ohio's Urban Areas, R. D. Welsh

Akron Law Review

Thirty-eight million dollars damage to property occurred in Watts in 1965, $49,000,000 in Detroit, and $10,000,000 in Newark, New Jersey in 1967, plus many others that have resulted in about $187,000,000 being paid in the five years ending in 1968. Until Watts, riot coverage was provided as an afterthought by the insurance industry with little or no additional charge. Besides this problem, insurers were faced with loss of reinsurance by foreign reinsurers alarmed by inability of Government authorities to maintain law and order.

Uninsured Motorist Coverage - Scope Of The Term - "Uninsured Motorist"; Porter V. Empire Fire And Marine Insurance Co., Dennis J. Fox

Akron Law Review

Absent a statutory definition of "uninsured motorist," the court under its powers of construction must, in a functional sense, legislate the gap-filling language. The outcome elsewhere on facts similar to those in Porter will depend, in part, on whether the legislature in adopting uninsured motorist statutes, have incorporated a definition of its terms.

Automobile Insurance Rates: Promulgation, Regulation, And Equal Protection, James J. Mcgraw

Akron Law Review

T HE INTEREST in the price one pays for automobile insurance continues to grow at a rapid pace. The reason for this growing consumer interest may be attributed to the equally increasing need for automobiles, the price paid for them, and consequently, the need for insurance protection. This insurance protection has developed into a matter of major economic consequence to the auto owner.....The key to improved and efficient rate-watching is in the good faith efforts and perseverance of the policyholders themselves. Accordingly, an examination of the effects of consumerism along with a discussion of modern rate and regulatory developments is …

Some Comments In Favour Of The Abolition Of Fault Law, William F. Foster

Akron Law Review

THE ALARMING NUMBER of automobile accidents resulting in death or injury to thousands of persons each year and the direct and indirect costs associated with these accidents is one of the more depressing features of modern life. Unfortunately, there is no reason to believe that there will be a dramatic improvement in this situation in the foreseeable future because: automobile transportation is central to the North American way of life, the majority of drivers have no competence in anything but routine driving situations, and often factors beyond a motorist's control cause or contribute to accidents. For these reasons it is …

Burglary Insurance Policies; Reasonable Expectations; Unconscionability; Application Of Implied Warranty Of Fitness; C & J Fertilizer, Inc. V. Allied Mutual Ins. Co., Janice Gui

Akron Law Review

THE IOWA SUPREME COURT handed down a landmark decision in C & I Fertilizer, Inc. v. Allied Mutual Ins. Co.', in holding that insurance policies carry implied warranties that they are fit for their intended use. The impetus for this decision was a clause in a burglary and robbery policy which defined "burglary" as . . . the felonious abstraction of insured property . . . from within the premises by a person making felonious entry therein by actual force and violence, of which force and violence there are visible marks made by tools, explosives, electricity or chemicals upon, or …

Petition For A Writ Of Certiorari. Rochow V. Life Insurance Company Of North America, 136 S. Ct. 480 (2015) (No. 15-163), 2015 U.S. S. Ct. Briefs Lexis 2657, Eric Schnapper, Erik W. Scharf, John J. Cooper

Court Briefs

QUESTION PRESENTED When a benefit plan, in violation of ERISA, wrongfully denies or delays payment of a benefit, the court may award relief because of the improper delay in the payment of that benefit. The question presented is: Should 'the amount of a remedy based on the improper delay in the payment of a benefit be based on: (1) only the amount needed to redress the loss that the beneficiary sustained as a result of the wrongful delay (the rule in the Sixth Circuit), (2) either the amount needed to redress the loss that the beneficiary sustained as a result …

In Rem Jurisdiction; Attachment Of Insurance Debts; State Statutes; O'Connorv. Lee-Hy Paving Corp., Eloise Lubbinge Mackus

Akron Law Review

The United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in O'Connor v. Lee-Hy Paving Corp., upheld New York's insurance attachment procedure which serves as a vehicle for gaining personal jurisdiction over out-of-state defendants in causes of action that arise outside of New York. The court thereby determined that New York federal courts, in applying the procedures, had not violated defendant's due process because the minimum contacts requirement of the recent United Stated Supreme Court case, Shaffer v. Heitner, had been met.

Tortious Liability For Bad Faith Refusal To Pay, Jeffrey Schobert

Akron Law Review

In Hoskins v. Aetna Life Ins. Co., the Ohio Supreme Court imposed on insurers a good faith duty in any refusal to pay claims made by their insured. Its decision placed Ohio among a growing number of jurisdictions that have recognized this good faith duty. The court adopted its rationale by relying heavily on existing insurance case law in the refusal-to-settle third-party claims type actions. The court defined the standard of good faith in terms of a reasonable justification by the insurer in refusing to pay a claim "because it believed there was no coverage of the claim." The …

Uninsured Motorist Insurance Now Covers Punitive Award - Hutchinson V. J.C. Penny Casualty Insurance Company, Dale Katzenmeyer

Akron Law Review

A split of authority exists among the few states which have decided the issue In jurisdictions permitting recovery of punitive damages, uninsured motorist coverage is intended to place the insurer in the shoes of the uninsured tortfeasor. Since the insurer stands in the shoes of the tortfeasor, and since punitive damages could be covered if the tortfeasor had his own insurance, it is illogical to deny the victim punitive damages simply because the tortfeasor is uninsured. Other jurisdictions believe that punitive damages should not be awarded since that award would not operate to punish the tortfeasor and would therefore violate …

Unraveling The Underinsured Motorist Web: Ohio Underinsured Motorist Coverage, Amy J. Mckee

Akron Law Review

Understanding how to access underinsured motorist benefits involves a myriad of complex issues. This comment shall focus on two threshold areas of underinsured motorist coverage: the statutory definition of an underinsured motorist and contractual condition precedents enumerated in the insurance policy. If the tortfeasor meets the definition of an underinsured motorist, as defined in the statute, the insured must still comply with three provisions in the contract; the exhaustion clause, the subrogation clause and the consent to settle clause. An insured must first procure the consent of his insurer before he settles with the tortfeasor. However, the insurer will withhold …

Death From Autoerotic Asphysxiation And The Double Indemnity Clause In Life Insurance Policies: The Latest Round In Accidental Death Litigation, Francis Achampong

Akron Law Review

This paper examines the cases that have been decided on this issue, seeking to determine whether recovery under the double indemnity provision revolves around the type of clause used in the policy, or on the particular jurisdiction's stand on what is "accidental," regardless of policy language. The author seeks to determine whether any particular trend may be elicited from these cases that may shed light on the likely disposition of future cases

The Impact Of State Farm V. Alexander On Uninsured And Underinsured Motorist Coverage Generally, And In To Relation To The Owned-But-Not -Insured Exclusion, Shawn Gordon Lisle

Akron Law Review

The discussion contained herein will commence with a brief examination of the uninsured and underinsured motorist statute's purpose.

Following the discussion of the uninsured motorist statute's purpose, the discussion will proceed to survey all cases to date which have had occasion to deal with Alexander in a substantive manner. Nine of the twelve Ohio appellate districts have considered the Alexander decision in some respect. Likewise, the Ohio Supreme Court has cited to Alexander as authority for reversing appellate court decisions which upheld exclusions violative of R.C. § 3937.18's purpose. Each decision shall be presented and examined in turn, grouped either …

Girgis V. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.: Rescinding The Physical Contact Requirement In Ohio Uninsured Motorist Claims, Dominick Cirelli Jr.

Akron Law Review

Nearly every state has a requirement concerning uninsured motorist coverage, although state statutes differ in their scope and language. There has been a great volume of literature discussing the applicability of uninsured motorist coverage in cases involving hit and run drivers. This casenote will set out the various state statutory approaches to hit and run vehicles under uninsured motorist coverage, as well as evaluate the Ohio Supreme Court's historical approach to the physical contact doctrine. The casenote will thoroughly address the Girgis opinion and its underlying rationale, as well as the repercussions of abrogating the physical contract doctrine. Finally, this …

Not Just Old Wine In New Bottles: Kentucky Ass'n Of Health Plans, Inc. V. Miller Bottles A New Test For State Regulation Of Insurance, Matthew G. Vansuch

Akron Law Review

For nearly two decades, the “regulating insurance” aspect of the savings clause was as confusing and convoluted as trying to distinguish between the casks of unlabeled barrels of old wine that all smelled horribly similar. Miller clarified the savings clause analysis by establishing a broad, two-step test for determining if a state law regulates insurance. However, the district courts have been sluggish in recognizing the differences between the tests. The Supreme Court did not even cite to or rely on Miller when it struck down Texas’ patient rights statute on the basis of ERISA preemption in Aetna Health Inc. v. …

Medicare At Fifty Needs To Grow, William H. Lane

English Faculty Publications

In America everybody has a healthcare story. A bill impossible to read, an inscrutable "additional" charge, trouble getting insurance, trouble keeping it, a friend or family member who's fallen between the coverage "cracks." [excerpt]

Dispute Resolution, Insurance, And Points Of Convergence, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This essay explores the intersection of dispute resolution and insurance. I come to the intersection from the perspective of insurance law, where statutes, administrative rules, and common law regulate the industry and the policyholder-insurer relationship. At its core, the business of insurance offers individuals, businesses, and other kinds of organizations a risk management alternative which enables them to acquire some measure of control over an uncertain future. But when a loss occurs, the business of insurance becomes the business of claims processing and, when disagreements arise, dispute resolution. Surprisingly, the academic study of insurance law has not borrowed heavily from …

The Special Nature Of International Insurance And Reinsurance Arbitration: A Response To Professor Jerry, S. I. Strong

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Thicker Than Water: America’S Addiction To Cheap Flood Insurance, Jeffrey Valacer

Pace Law Review

This paper is broken down into three parts. Part I traces the history and evolution of flood insurance in the United States, including the establishment of federal flood insurance and key reforms over the 20th and 21st centuries. Part II discusses the 2012 flood insurance reform package, subsequent legal challenges to the reforms, and the government’s response to political pressure over the reform. Part III concludes discussing the continued need for flood insurance reform, especially in a world of rising sea levels and more frequent, stronger weather events.

Inference Under Stability Of Risk Preferences, Levon Barseghyan, Francesca Molinari, Joshua C. Teitelbaum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We leverage the assumption that preferences are stable across contexts to partially identify and conduct inference on the parameters of a structural model of risky choice. Working with data on households' deductible choices across three lines of insurance coverage and a model that nests expected utility theory plus a range of non-expected utility models, we perform a revealed preference analysis that yields household-specific bounds on the model parameters. We then impose stability and other structural assumptions to tighten the bounds, and we explore what we can learn about households' risk preferences from the intervals defined by the bounds. We further …

Judicial Deregulation Of Consumer Markets, Max N. Helveston

Cardozo Law Review

The dangers posed by insufficiently regulated consumer markets are both real and monumental. While the rights of consumers expanded drastically in the mid- to late twentieth century, these protections have weakened in the new millennium. One of the forces driving this change has been the judiciary, where an anti-consumer jurisprudence has taken root. This is surprising, given the courts' history of defending individuals' commercial rights and combating unfair market practices.

Despite the significant ramifications that the removal of consumer protections has for every individual, the evolution of anti-consumerism in the courts has received scarce attention from the academy. This Article …

The Perverse Effects Of Subsidized Weather Insurance, Kyle D. Logue, Omri Ben-Shahar

Law & Economics Working Papers

This Article explores the role of insurance as a substitute for direct regulation of risks posed by severe weather. In pricing the risk of human activity along the predicted path of storms, insurance can provide incentives for efficient location decisions as well as for cost-justified mitigation effort in building construction and infrastructure. Currently, however, much insurance for severe weather risks is provided and heavily subsidized by the government. The Article demonstrates two primary distortions arising from the government’s dominance in these insurance markets. First, the subsidies are allocated differentially across households, resulting in a significant regressive redistribution, favoring affluent homeowners …

No Good Options: Picking Up The Pieces After King V. Burwell, Nicholas Bagley, David K. Jones

Articles

If the Supreme Court rules against the government in King v. Burwell, insurance subsidies available under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will evaporate in the thirty-four states that have refused to establish their own health-care exchanges. The pain could be felt within weeks. Without subsidies, an estimated eight or nine million people stand to lose their health coverage. Because sicker people will retain coverage at a much higher rate than healthier people, insurance premiums in the individual market will surge by as much as fifty percent. Policymakers will come under intense pressure to mitigate the fallout from a government loss …

Real Arrow-Securities For All: Just And Efficient Insurance Through Macro-Hedging, Robert C. Hockett

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

As a new hurricane season opened in June of 2006, it emerged that a number of online gaming sites were offering bettors the opportunity to wager on whether New Orleans might suffer another Katrina calamity. Commentators condemned the announced practice with howls of disgust, labeling it both tasteless and heartless. Perhaps they were right. All I could think about as one who grew up in New Orleans, however, was how risk pools might hereby be broadened to include all the world’s bettors. We shouldn’t condemn these people; we should use them—while requiring that they maintain margin accounts at their betting …

Splitting The Bill: Creating A National Car Insurance Fund To Pay For Accidents In Autonomous Vehicles, Carrie Schroll

Northwestern University Law Review

While self-driving cars may seem like something that can exist only in a futuristic movie, the technology is developing rapidly, and many states already allow test runs of self-driving cars on state roads. Many car companies have announced that they will make self-driving cars available as early as 2020. However, several manufacturers of the self- driving car technology predict that personal ownership of vehicles will be replaced by a car-sharing system, where companies own the self-driving cars and rent them to consumers who pay per use. With more widespread introduction of this technology comes many questions about how to assess …

Coverage For Ill - Gotten Gains? Discussing The (Un)Insurability Of Restitution And Disgorgement, Katherine C. Skilling

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Insuring Floods: The Most Common And Devastating Natural Catastrophes In America, Christopher French

Faculty Scholarship

Flooding is the most common natural catastrophe Americans face, accounting for 90% of all damage caused by natural catastrophes. Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, for example, collectively caused over $160 billion in damage, but only approximately 10% of the Hurricane Katrina victims and 50% of the Hurricane Sandy victims had insurance to cover their flood losses. Consequently, both their homes and lives were left in ruins in the wake of the storms. Nationwide, only approximately 7% of homeowners have insurance that covers flood losses even though the risk of flooding is only increasing as coastal areas continue to be developed and …

Should The Law Preserve Party Control? Litigation Investment, Insurance Law, And Double Standards, Anthony J. Sebok

William & Mary Law Review

Litigation investment, sometimes known as litigation finance, is increasingly accepted around the world. Once prohibited as champerty, litigation investment is now embraced in England, Canada, and Australia, as well as in many civil law nations. In the United States, the development of a robust market for investment in litigation has been met by various objections. One objection is that litigation investment interferes with the autonomy of lawyers. A second objection is that it promotes frivolous litigation.

This Article takes up a popular argument against litigation investment: the legal system should not encourage parties to sell their control over litigation that …

Should The Law Preserve Party Control? Litigation Investment, Insurance Law, And Double Standards, Anthony J. Sebok

Articles

Litigation investment, sometimes known as litigation finance, is increasingly accepted around the world. Once prohibited as champerty, litigation investment is now embraced in England, Canada, and Australia, as well as in many civil law nations. In the United States, the development of a robust market for investment in litigation has been met by various objections. One objection is that litigation investment interferes with the autonomy of lawyers. A second objection is that it promotes frivolous litigation.

This Article takes up a popular argument against litigation investment: the legal system should not encourage parties to sell their control over litigation that …