Holding Insurance Companies Responsible to the People They Insure
Breach of Contract by Insurance Company
The second violation was in a way more egregious: A breach of contract by a major insurance company that insured Jesse against underinsured motorists like the young man who fired the shot from his Jeep. Oregon law requires auto insurers to pay benefits to members of an insured’s household who are injured due to accidents arising out of the use, ownership, or maintenance of an undersinsured vehicle. The insurance company for Jesse’s family refused to recognize that Jesse was a member of his parents’ household, arguing that he lost his coverage while he was attending school. Next, the insurance company argued that there was no coverage for a shooting injury involving use of a car, despite a clear Oregon Supreme Court opinion on that very subject.
$1.625 Million Including Insurance Bad Faith Claim
What started out as outdoor game ended in a young man being shot in the neck. Jesse, a 20-year-old college student, was playing paintball with friends when the first of two violations of Oregon law occurred. A young man not part of the group was driving on a nearby road and pulled over to shoot what he thought was an animal. That “animal” turned out to be Jesse. The injuries resulted in Jesse being paralyzed. Shooting from a vehicle is a violation of several Oregon laws that prohibit hunting from a vehicle or public road. We were able to collect the $750,000 policy limits from the driver’s homeowners and auto liability policies.
First Party Bad Faith
After Jesse’s auto insurance company refused to pay under the Underinsured Motorist (UIM) coverage, we filed a lawsuit on Jesse’s behalf against his insurer. This case challenged the widely held but overly-broad view that “there is no first party bad faith” in Oregon. We were able to collect the balance available on the UIM coverage, plus an amount for Jesse’s attorney fees, for an additional $875,000 from the UIM carrier ($1.625 million total on the case).
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