Louisville Car Accident Lawyer Case – Insurance Coverage
The Court of Appeals of Kentucky recently decided a car accident case that involved the issue of insurance coverage. Angela Richardson was involved in a car accident in Kentucky. She was injured as a result of the car accident. The accident occurred in April of 2003. At trial, the judge dismissed the case on summary judgment in favor of progressive Northern Insurance Company. Ms. Richardson appealed. And the appellate court held that the trial court was right. (See Richardson v. Progressive Northern Insurance co., 2009 WL 103167 (Ky.App)).
In Richardson, Ms. Richardson was seriously injured in a car accident when a truck driven by Gene Boes and owned by Terry Stanton d/b/a Rock bottom Trucking turned in front of her car, causing the accident. Ms. Richardson sued Mr. Boes and Mr. Stanton and in the suit named Progressive as Mr. Stanton’s insurance carrier. Progressive filed a declaratory action seeking a ruling as to whether it was obligated to provide coverage. A default was entered in the declaratory action after Mr. Boes and Mr. Stanton failed to answer. In other words, Progressive won in the declaratory matter which basically proved that Progressive did not have to put up a defense for Mr. Boes or Mr. Stanton in the main case because Progressive did not insure either party at the time of the accident. Thus, Progressive filed a motion to get out of the main trial and it was granted. At the main trial, Progressive showed that it did not insure the defendants from November 7, 2002 through May 7, 2003. T he accident was in April 2003. Progressive showed proof that it mailed out a “notice of cancellation due to non-payment of premium” to the defendants and that they never responded. Ms. Richardson's car accident lawyer was behind the eight ball in trying to keep Progressive in.
At the main case, Mr. Boes and Mr. Stanton indicated that they believed that the insurance was in place, but offered no proof. And so Ms. Richardson appealed claiming that there were issues of material facts that could not be dismissed and had to go to a jury. But, the appellate court did not agree stating basically that there were no issues of material fact. The Progressive policy was clearly not in effect at the time of the accident and thus Progressive could not be held liable for this car accident. And thus Ms. Richardson's car accident attorney had no way of recovering from Progressive for this car accident.
If you have been the subject of a Louisville car accident matter, please call and speak to a Louisville car accident lawyer at the Law Offices of Andrew S. Alitowski at 888-ASK-ANDREW (275-2637) or contact us online. We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
If you are injured…Ask Andrew!!!
