Tis the Season For Insurance Coverage

Reindeer And Coverage Litigation

My wife bought our dog a Christmas present. I said what are you doing? You’re crazy. And then I covered the dogs ears before letting her tell me what she got him.

Just as I discussed in the last issue of CO, while you would think that Thanksgiving is one of a handful a days a year when insurance coverage can take a break, it’s not. There are no turkey-induced naps to be had on the fourth Thursday in November. Certainly the folks in Jenkins v. Mayflower Insurance Exchange (Ariz. 1963), State Insurance Fund v. David A. Gobble (Ok. 1988) and Hodgate v. Pilgrim Insurance Company (Conn. Super. Ct. 2013) know this.

It turns out that Christmas is just the same. Here too insurance coverage cannot be cast aside for the annual NBA marathon and a crudite platter with your cousins. Even on the one day a year when nothing is open except the Rite-Aid near my house, insurance coverage gets no rest. Consider the amount of coverage litigation over the years involving Christmas and its many symbols. [These are real. Sometimes I make stuff up in CO. This isn’t one of them.]

• Bobby Dickens v. Travelers Insurance, 1996 WL 591184 (Tenn. 1996)

• Federal Insurance Co. v. Elf Aquitaine, Inc., 511 F.Supp.2d 390 (S.D.N.Y. 2007)

• Banner Life Co. v. Jacqueline Noel, 861 F. Supp. 2d 701 (E.D. Va. 2012)

• Hernan Santa v. Capitol Specialty Insurance, 949 N.Y.S.2d 15 (2012)

• Barbara Christmas v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance, 30 F. Supp. 3d 435 (E.D.N.C. 2014)

• Grange Mutual Casualty Co. v. Karin Dasher, 2013 WL 85244 (S.D. Ga. 2013)

• American Life & Annuity Co. v. Joe Dancer, 398 S.W.2d 529 (Ark. 1966)

• Comet Casualty Company v. Jackson, 467 N.E.2d 269 (Ill. Ct. App. 29184)

• Lexington Insurance Co. v. Nigel Cupid, 2007 WL 683780 (D.C.V.I. 2007)

• Joseph Donner v. Transamerica Insurance Co., 483 N.W.2d 874 (Mich. 1992)

• Rebecca Rudolph v. Standard Insurance Co., 2012 WL 6590918 (W.D. Wash. 2012)

• Spruce Medical and Diagnostic v. Lumbermens Mutual, 841 N.Y.S.2d 823 (2007)

• Holly Swayze v. State Farm, 142 So.3d 369 (La. Ct. App. 2014)

• Carol Hernandez v. State Farm, 2013 WL 5707795 (E.D. La. 2013)

• Christopher Gift v. Nationwide Insurance Co., 1998 WL 164997 (E.D. Pa. 1998)

• Hanover American Insurance Co. v. White, 2015 WL 4629318 (W.D. Ok. 2015)

• Ella Mae Card v. State Farm, 126 F.R.D. 658 (1989)

• Frank Jolly v. Ins. Co. of North America, 331 So. 2d 368 (Fla. Ct. App. 1976)

• Eve Waters v. Farmers Ins. Co., 924 P.2d 37 (Wash. Ct. App. 1996)

• State Farm v. Advanced Chimney, Inc., 2014 WL 4537511 (E.D.N.Y. 2014)

• Farmers and Merchants Insurance Co. v. Elijah Needles, 52 Mo. 17 (1873)

• United National Insurance Co. v. Silk Stockings, 51 Fed. Appx. 407 (4th Cir. 2002)

• Dannie Frosty v. State Accident Insurance Fund, 547 P.2d 634 (Or. Ct. App. 1976)

• Thomas Yule v. Iowa National Mutual Insurance Co., 390 N.W.2d 391 (Minn. Ct. App. 1986)

• State Farm v. Bing Crosby, 121 P.2d 304 (Cal. Ct. App. 1968) [OK. I made that one up.]

That’s my time. I’m Randy Spencer. Contact Randy Spencer at

Randy.Spencer@coverageopinions.info