Atlanta Injury Attorney Blog
I was looking through some case law on recent developments about intra-family exclusions and reductions when I came across the last holding of an interesting case.
In the case a lady had died and her passenger children were injured when she drove through an intersection. The ex-husband had filed suit for several things but one thing was for the medical bills incurred by the children and the loss of their services. The insurer raised the intra-family tort exclusion and argued that the claim would reduce coverage to only $25,000. The Court disagreed and wrote that the ex was not related to the dead wife and the the medical and services claim was not derivative of the kids family relationship with the deceased. Johnson v. GFB 273 Ga 623 (2005)
“GFB argues that the trial court erred in concluding that the family exclusion discussed in Division 1 does not limit liability coverage to Johnson on his individual claim for recovery of medical expenses and loss of services due to the children’s injuries. Johnson was the insured’s ex-husband and not a family member, and therefore this claim is not derivative of the children’s own claims for their own personal injuries. Since he brought this claim on his own behalf for his own losses, the family exclusion does not apply here.”