This is Weekly Industry News Editor Gary Wolcott’s opinion but you might likely agree. This may be one of — if not THE — dumbest decisions by a court that he has ever seen.
And he’s been a journalist for over 40 years.
If you aren’t familiar with the case, some background first. A couple of years ago a woman in Missouri sued GEICO saying she contracted a venereal disease in a car insured by the company.
The contracted VD was human papillomavirus, or HPV for those not knowing the definition, or needing a deeper one.
The woman said since she picked up HPV in the guy’s car and he didn’t tell her he was infected, GEICO is responsible because it insures damages done in the guy’s vehicle.
GEICO ignored her lawsuit threat, or took it very lightly, so that court gave her $2 million though she only sued for $1 million.
Later, GEICO sought arbitration and said what happened to the lady in that car had nothing to do with the company or the operation of the vehicle. Instead of getting what most of us think was a common sense decision, that court increased the award decision to $5.2 million.
That led to an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. GEICO now has a ruling that says the company should have been allowed to weigh into the issue sooner than it did and the court said this one needs to go back to the lower court for further evaluation.
GEICO — and most of us with a thread of common sense — think the lower court needs to toss this ridiculous lawsuit and the even dumber court decisions, out.
Source link: Insurance Business America — https://bit.ly/3ZFy9rX
