Anderson County Court House
Click here for the September 2013 topical summaries of published decisions from the Supreme Court of Kentucky (SCOKY) which contains topical case summaries and attorney disciplinary decisions for this month.
Click here for list of all summaries for SCOKY by year and month at AOC.
Tort, insurance and civil cases:
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Karen Hodkiss- Warrick
2011-SC-000266-DG September 26, 2013
Opinion of the Court by Justice Abramson. Minton, C.J.; Keller and Noble, JJ., concur. Scott, J., dissents by separate opinion in which Cunningham, J., joins. Venters, J., not sitting.
Pennsylvania resident was injured in Kentucky while riding as a passenger in her daughter’s car. Her insurer denied her claim for under-insured motorists benefits because her Pennsylvania insurance contract excluded the vehicles of resident relatives from the definition of “under-insured vehicle.” Disagreeing with the policy holder’s contention that Kentucky’s public policy invalidated the exclusion, the trial court ruled that under standard choice- of-law rules Pennsylvania law applied and that under Pennsylvania law the exclusion was valid. Reversing the Court of Appeals rejection of that result and reinstating the trial court’s judgment, the Supreme Court held that the General Assembly’s statutorily expressed policy of mandating automobile liability insurance did not extend to under-insurance coverage so as to justify a Kentucky court’s invalidation of the Pennsylvania contract on public policy grounds.
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