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September 28, 2018 In Jones v. IDS Property Casualty Ins. Co. (No. C084065, filed 9/25/18), a California appeals court found that while there is a split of authority in the case law, under the insurer’s applicable policy wording a wife’s claim for loss of consortium was subject to the same per person limit of the defendant’s insurance policy as her husband’s claim for bodily injury.In Jones, the insured was sued for an auto accident, and stipulated to a judgment of $1.35 million for the other d

In PacifiCare Life & Health Ins. Co. v. Jones (No. G053914, filed 9/20/18), a California appeals court upheld the California Insurance Commissioner’s authority to impose a $173 million penalty on a health insurer based on a finding of multiple violations of the State’s Insurance Code and insurance regulations.In PacifiCare, the Insurance Commissioner, Dave Jones, imposed the fines after finding 900,000 violations of the Unfair Insurance Practices Act (Ins. Code §§ 790, et seq., “UIPA”). Insu

Under Oregon’s no-fault personal injury protection (“PIP”) statute, insurers must provide certain benefits (e.g. medical expenses and wage loss) to insured drivers involved in car accidents, without regard to fault. In the case of PIP medical benefits, the statute requires that benefits must be paid “promptly” after receiving proof of loss. The statute also provides that PIP medical expenses are deemed “reasonable and necessary” unless the PIP insurer provides the medical provider notice of deni

n Sveen v. Melin (No. 16-1432, filed June 11, 2018) (“Sveen”), the United States Supreme Court held that a statute which automatically revoked life insurance beneficiary designations following the policyholder’s divorce did not violate the Contracts Clause of the United States Constitution. (U.S. Const. Art. I § 10, cl. 1.)In 2002, the Minnesota Legislature passed a statute that automatically revokes the designation of a spouse as the beneficiary of life insurance policy if the policy is purchas

In Liberty Surplus Ins. Corp. v. Ledesma & Meyer Construction Co., Inc. (No. S236765, filed 6/4/18) (L&M), the California Supreme Court ruled that the liability insurance requirement that injury be caused by an “occurrence,” defined as an “accident,” does not preclude coverage of an employer’s independent tort liability for injury deliberately caused by its employee.In L&M, Liberty insured a construction company that contracted to manage a construction project at a middle school in S