The State of Oklahoma requires liability insurance for licensed or certified foster parents. In 2002, the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (“DHS”) placed a six-month-old baby in a foster home and liability insurance was provided to the foster mother by two insurers at the expense of the State. Less than one month later, the baby
Liquor Liability Exclusion
An insurance company provided liquor liability coverage to a restaurant/tavern including coverage for injuries "imposed" on the insured resulting from "selling, serving or furnishing of any alcoholic beverage".
The club was sued in an underlying state court action by the parent/guardians of three minor Plaintiffs who were purportedly injured as bystanders to a fight which
Exclusion For Inverse Condemnation Held Valid
An insurer sold a liability insurance policy to a municipality which specifically excluded coverage for inverse condemnation. The municipality was sued in an inverse condemnation action and filed a claim under the insurance policy after a verdict was returned against the municipality. The claim was denied under the insurance policy exclusion for inverse condemnation. As
Don’t Dump The UM Coverage
In September, 2010, a commercial auto insurance policy was issued to a county commissioner including uninsured motorist coverage for county vehicles. The liability limits of the policy included $125,000 per person and a maximum of $1 Million per accident.
A county worker was injured on the job while performing road-resurfacing duties and filed a claim
Oklahoma Does Not Allow Plaintiffs To Recover For Unnecessary Losses Which Could Have Been Avoided
Unnecessary damages which could have been avoided by the insured cannot be recovered in a lawsuit for breach of contract as every Oklahoma insurance lawyer well knows. A party who asserts a claim for breach of contract against an insurance company has a duty to use reasonable efforts to mitigate his damages. Hidalgo Properties,
Coverage Questions – A 19 Year Veteran’s Experience
Coverage decisions tend to be expensive one way or the other. If an insurance company determines coverage exists, then it has to pay for the underlying claim. If the claim was not really covered by the terms of the insurance policy, then the company has incurred an expense that was unnecessary and which adversely impacts
Insurance Fraud In An Application Can Result In Rescission Of The Policy
Oklahoma insurance law attorneys agree there are a number of reasons why a policy may be voided by an insurance company. Fraud by the applicant or policy holder is the most common reason an insurance company would rescind or void an insurance policy. Rescission is defined as:
1. A party’s unilateral unmaking of a contract
False Statements In The Application For Insurance Can Void Coverage
Fraud perpetrated in any contract can relieve the other party of the duty to perform. In other words, fraud or making false statements is legally unacceptable. Fraud includes any statement or act that is intended to deceive someone into entering into the contract. Fraud consists of:
- A Suggestion that something is true when
Interpretation Of An Insurance Policy Must Be Reasonable
In our last post, we discussed some rules the courts use to interpret insurance policies. If the contract has language that is subject to more than one interpretation, it is considered to be ambiguous. In Oklahoma when an insurance policy has ambiguous language, we explained the courts construe the language in favor of the
Courts Use Rules Of Interpretation To Decide What An Insurance Policy Really Means
It is no surprise there is often disagreement over whether an insurance policy provides coverage. There are competing interests to be accommodated and sometimes the language used is clearer to one person than another.
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We are often asked, “How do judges decide what the insurance policy really means?” There are volumes of books in law