La.R.S. 22:1295 (formerly 22:1406(D) and 22:680) generally provides that all automobile liability insurance, including excess or umbrella policies, delivered or issued for delivery in Louisiana, and covering liability arising out of the ownership maintenance or use of a motor vehicle required to be registered in Louisiana, provides UM coverage in…
In Marcus v. Hanover Ins. Co., Inc., 740 So.2d 603 (La.1999), the Louisiana Supreme Court held that a “business use exclusion” in a personal automobile liability policy which excludes coverage for damages resulting from the operation of “your insured car, in any business other than an auto business,” is against…
Using the duty/risk analysis, it must be determined whether the insured’s conduct of which the plaintiff complains is a legal cause of the accident. If so, then it must be determined whether the insured’s conduct arose out of the “use” of an automobile. In order for the insured’s conduct to…
Liability insurance policy language requiring “permission” by the owner to use a vehicle imposes a different standard than a policy requiring only a “reasonable belief” by the operator that he or she had permission of the owner to use the vehicle. When the insurance policy requires permission by the owner,…
La. R.S. 22:1269 (formerly 22:655), provides for a direct action against a liability insurer in two instances: 1) where the policy or contract of liability insurance was issued (domestic insurer) or delivered (foreign insurer) in Louisiana; or 2) where the accident or injury occurred in Louisiana. The injured person or…
The Louisiana Direct Action Statute, La. R.S. 1269 (formerly 22:655) confers substantive rights on third parties to contracts of public liability insurance, which become vested at the moment of the accident in which they are injured, subject only to such defenses as the tortfeasor himself may legally interpose. Personal defenses,…
Black’s Law Dictionary defines INSURANCE as: A contract by which one party (the insurer) undertakes to indemnify another party (the insured) against risk of loss, damage, or liability arising from the occurrence of some specified contingency, and to defend the insured or to pay for a defense regardless of whether…
Principles of Interpretation of Insurance Policies: 1) An insurance policy is a contract between the parties and is the law between the parties. 2) An insurance policy is construed using the general rules of interpretation of contracts set forth in the Civil Code. See La. C.C. art. 2045: Interpretation of…
In Louisiana, benefits under any personal insurance contract accruing upon the death, disablement, or injury of the individual insured are not payable to any beneficiary held by a final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction to be criminally responsible for the death, disablement, or injury of the individual insured,…
The property insurer must prove by a clear preponderance of the evidence, either direct or circumstantial, that the loss was of incendiary origin, and that the insured was the person responsible for the fire.