CRUG Supreme Court Win: Win for Liability Insurers
CRUG’s David Utley and David Lester recently prevailed in the Supreme Court of Ohio in Acuity v. Progressive Specialty Ins. Co. (opinion below). In that case, the Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the right of insurers to define who is an insured under liability policies.
A car accident resulted in multiple liability policies being potentially implicated for the tortfeasor. One of the policies limited who qualified as an insured to drivers who did not have liability coverage elsewhere. The other policy did not use such increasingly common policy language. In the ensuing declaratory judgment action on the interaction of the policies, the trial court ruled that the first policy did not apply, but the Eleventh Appellate District reversed on the grounds that such policy language constituted an “escape clause” that the court of appeals flatly refused to enforce. As a result, both policies were implicated. On further appeal, the Supreme Court of Ohio reversed and found that only the second policy applied.
See opinion: https://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2023/2023-Ohio-3780.pdf
David G. Utley (L), David L. Lester (R)
