September 30, 2008 by Zale.

Slip and falls are some of the hardest cases for plaintiffs to win in Tennessee.  In order to win, one of the key elements the plaintiff my prove is that the premises owner knew or should have known of the hazard.  You also have to show that you, the person who is injured, should not have seen or noticed the condition, especially if it is “open and obvious”.

In my eleven years of handling insurance claims, I handled quite a few slip and fall claims.  Only a few truly seemed valid.  Here’s a recent case where the plaintiff was unsuccessful in proving the above.

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September 30, 2008 by Zale.

Be careful if you do.  Here’s a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals case where Farmers asserted an exclusion against one of their policyholders.

Everyday individuals trying to make a living use their personal automobiles to conduct business.  Often, this is encouraged by their employers.  Its good for those individuals to check their insurance policy to make sure their business activities are covered.

It seems to be a fairly rare instance where the insurer for a personal auto policy asserts this type of business use exclusion, since they are usually fairly narrow exclusions.  The point of the exclusion is for the vehicle owner to get a commercial auto policy, which is designed for business use vehicle.

In this instance, the exclusion stated:  “[w]hile used in employment by any person whose primary duties are the delivery of products or services[.]”  Both the trial court and the Court of Appeals agreed with Farmers on this one and the policyholder was out of luck.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Practices, Insurance Law | No Comments »