A woman has her husband specifically excluded from her car insurance policy. Her husband takes her car, goes on a joyride, and gets into a car accident. Does the insurance company have to pay for the property damage and the hospital bills? A court decided that yes, they do, despite the exclusion.
A woman in Michigan, who seems to be remaining nameless in the articles I have read about this particular situation, got her car insurance policy through Progressive Marathon Insurance. She had her husband, a man named Ryan DeYoung, specifically excluded from her auto insurance policy.
This means she had a provision in her car insurance policy that eliminated coverage for her husband, entirely. An insurance company can make exclusions for people, locations, property classes, or certain kinds of risks. Usually, a married couple will seek out an auto insurance policy that covers both of them. If this woman in Michigan went through the trouble of getting her husband excluded from the policy, then one would assume that she had a good reason for doing so.
In September of 2008, some time after the woman had her husband excluded from her car insurance policy, it became apparent why she didn’t want him on her policy. Her husband, Ryan DeYoung took her SUV without her permission, and went for a joyride. It has been said that Mr. DeYoung does not have a drivers license.
It is alleged that he was intoxicated at the time that he was driving the SUV. The police say he was driving too fast when he hit a curve in the road and lost control of the vehicle. After hitting two trees, he was ejected from the SUV. He ended up in critical condition at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, and then spent some time recovering from his injuries at Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital. Everyone knows that hospital bills are extremely expensive.
Progressive sued the DeYoungs in the Ottawa County Circuit Court, and then the hospitals joined into the lawsuit, in an attempt to get their bills paid. The court, though, made a ruling that may surprise you. A panel of three judges decided that the Progressive Insurance company was responsible for paying the bills that were accrued due to the car accident.
It turns out that there is a precedent that allows for coverage of a person who is a joyrider who is from the same family as the person who has the auto insurance policy. It stems from a Michigan Supreme Court decision that was made in 1992. This means that Progressive has to pay both Spectrum Health and the Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital for the bills of Ryan DeYoung.
Lawyers representing Progressive are going to appeal this decision. They feel that the precedent unfairly overrides an insurance company’s right to decide to exclude a person from an insurance policy. The panel of three judges are also not thrilled with their decision, but had no other choice, due to the legal precedent.
Image by Tammra McCauley on Flickr