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Insurance firms at all times appear to be on the prepared with fairly a number of defenses up their sleeves, together with – the technical protection of late discover. The conventional discover rule didn’t require the insurance coverage firm to point out there was prejudice, it was merely sufficient for them to point out the discover was premature. Thankfully, many states now require the insurance coverage firm to point out that the late discover was really prejudicial to the investigation of the declare.
Different states have totally different stances on this, and Mississippi is among the states that requires prejudice.
The Mississippi Supreme Court has held that,
[W]right here an insurance coverage coverage requires discover as a situation precedent to protection, protection should be allowed except the insurer suffered prejudice resulting from delay; that prejudice is a query of reality.1
The court docket additional elaborated:
As we now have identified, the idea of prejudice will decide whether or not a breach of the discover obligation will trigger protection to be misplaced. That prejudice could forestall protection even when the statute of limitations doesn’t.2
The secure motion for Mississippi policyholders is to be well timed and never present late discover of the loss. To learn extra on the subject of Mississippi legislation and prejudice, see Chip Merlin’s weblog submit “Mississippi Requires Prejudice For a Policyholder To Lose Coverage For Failure to Appear at An Examination Under Oath.”
1 Jackson v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 880 So. 2nd 336, 341 (Miss. 2004) (citing Harris v. American Motorist Ins. Co., 240 Miss. 262, 126 So. 2nd 870, 873 (Miss. 1961)).
2 Id. at 342.