Is death resulting from autoerotic asphyxiation gone wrong an accident or is coverage under an accidental death insurance policy precluded by the policy’s “self-inflicted injury” exclusion. A recent appellate court ruling overturned a lower court’s determination that the language of the exclusion is ambiguous and therefore had to be resolved in favor of the insured […]
Accidental death and dismemberment insurance frequently present fascinating issues, as illustrated by a recent ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In Dowdy v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 2018 WL 2223722 (9th Cir. May 16, 2018). Tommy Dowdy required a below-the-knee amputation following injuries suffered in a car collision. Although such an amputation […]
Anecdotally, the most litigated accidental death insurance claims involve drunk driving. The next most prevalent type of litigated accidental death claim are cases involving autoerotic asphyxiation. The recent ruling in Tran v. Minnesota Life Ins. Co., 2018 WL 1156326 (N.D. Ill. March 5, 2018) was one such case. The plaintiff was the widow of an […]
DeBofsky Sherman Casciari Reynolds P.C. recently won an important accidental death insurance case in the U.S. Court of Appeals – Prather v. Sun Life and Health Insurance Company, 2016 WL 7232144 (7th Cir. December 13, 2016) – /Cases/Prather-v-Sun-Life.pdf. The case was brought on behalf of Lee Ann Prather, the widow of Jeremy Prather, who died […]
Most working people buy life insurance for their family’s financial protection in the event of untimely death. And many employee benefit plans that offer life insurance also provide death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, which provides added protection in the event death or loss of limb occurs in an “accident,” which the seminal appellate ruling in […]
That question was answered in the affirmative in Yasko v. Reliance Standard Life Ins.Co., 2014 U.S.Dist.LEXIS 88469 (N.D.Ill. June 30, 2014), a case involving accidental death insurance that was litigated by DeBofsky, Sherman & Casciari. See, /DeBofsky-Associates-Receives-Favorable-Ruling-in-Accidental-Death-Insurance-Case.shtml. Alan Yasko, a physician, died of a pulmonary embolism shortly after flying from Chicago to a medical conference […]