$1,700,000 Policy-Limits Wrongful Death Single Car Accident Settlement

Butler Kahn recently obtained a $1,700,000 policy-limits wrongful death settlement. The case involved a single-car accident that resulted in the death of our clients’ son.

Here’s more about the case.

• Facts of the Car Wreck
  

Just after 11:00 p.m., Ryan* and his friend Ben* were in Ben’s car traveling down a residential road. Ryan was in the passenger seat and Ben was driving. As Ben drove down this residential road, where the speed limit was only 45 mph, Ben started driving more than 100 mph. Ben then struck a mailbox, lost control of his vehicle, crashed through a fence, and eventually came to a rest in a field off the side of the road. Ryan was killed in the collision. Ben walked away unharmed.

Diagram of Wreck from Police Report

Police obtained blood samples from Ben and sent those sample for alcohol and drug testing. The results showed Ben had a blood alcohol content of over double the legal limit. As a result, police charged Ben with homicide by vehicle in the 1st degree, driving under the influence, and reckless driving.

Photo of Scene

• Potential Dram Shop Case

Whenever a case involves drunk driving, we want to know where the driver got drunk. Under Georgia law, a business may be liable for injuries or death resulting from their customer’s intoxication when that business “knowingly sells, furnishes, or serves alcoholic beverages to a person who is in a state of noticeable intoxication, knowing that such person will soon be driving a motor vehicle.” O.C.G.A. § 51-1-40(b).

In this case, Ben went to several local restaurants and purchased alcohol from a liquor store. Because Ben had bought and consumed alcohol from many different establishments, we had no way to prove where he became intoxicated or whether the establishments that sold alcohol to Ben knew that Ben was about to drive – both of which would have been required to win a ‘dram shop’ case. Because we couldn’t prove the necessary elements of case against the restaurants or the liquor store, we talked with our clients and decided not to pursue such a case.

• Types of Insurance Coverage

In most car wreck cases, there are potentially three types of insurance at play. First is liability insurance. Liability insurance is when someone is liable, or at fault for a wreck. This insurance insures the at-fault driver. Georgia drivers are only required to carry $25,000 of liability insurance, though many drivers choose to have higher limits.

The second type is an umbrella policy. An umbrella policy is extra insurance above liability insurance. You normally see umbrella policies when someone has assets to protect. In order to have an umbrella policy, insurance companies often require their insureds to have higher liability policy limits. Most at-fault drivers do not have umbrella policies.

The third type is underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage (“UM” or “UIM”). UM or UIM insurance is your own personal coverage, intended to protect you and your family from uninsured or underinsured drivers. This coverage applies when you are not at fault for the wreck. This is an optional coverage, so not everyone will have UM or UIM coverage.

In this case, we eventually found all three types of policies. Specifically, we found $100,000 of liability coverage, $1,000,000 of umbrella liability coverage, and $600,000 of UM coverage. As further discussed below, however, finding those policies was not easy.

• Hidden Insurance Coverage

In every case, we look for all available insurance coverage. In most cases, we can find this information out before filing a lawsuit by sending letters to insurance companies pursuant to O.C.G.A. § 33-3-28. This law requires insurance companies to provide information about any known insurance policies, including the policy limits. The insurance companies have 60 days to comply with requests for that information. Unfortunately, sometime insurance companies ignore our requests or are not completely honest about the available insurance. When this happens, we often need to file a lawsuit to obtain the insurance information.

In this case, before our clients hired us, the insurance companies told our clients that there was only $25,000 of liability insurance coverage. Then, the insurance companies told our clients that there was $100,000 of liability insurance coverage. Then, our clients hired us. We did not believe that there was only $100,000 of liability coverage. Thankfully, our clients trusted us and allowed us to file a lawsuit so that we could further investigate the available insurance.

One insurance company in particular ignored our requests for information. It took threatening the deposition of a corporate representative of that insurance company just to get the declarations page. We learned that the insurance company that ignored our prior letters provided a $1,000,000 umbrella insurance policy. Shortly after learning about the $1,000,000 umbrella insurance policy, we received a letter denying coverage.

Excerpt from the Letter Denying Coverage

We knew the insurance company was wrong. Based on the insurance policy language, we believed that Ben was insured and the $1,000,000 in coverage applied to our clients’ loss of their son.

• $1,700,000 Policy Limits Settlement

We made a demand for all three insurance policies – including the umbrella policy that claimed there was no coverage. In the end, all three insurance companies accepted our demand and they collectively paid a total of $1,700,000 to settle our clients’ claim. No amount of money can make up for the loss of our clients’ son, but we are grateful they trusted us to represent their family.

*Names were changed in the interest of privacy.