An article within the Insurance Journal, New Hampshire Body Shop Owner ‘Winging’ Own Case Beats State Farm in High Court, about an task of advantages (AOB) case caught my consideration. State Farm’s attorneys misplaced to a non-lawyer in New Hampshire’s Supreme Court.1 The greenback dispute was overwhelmed by the sensible implications of the case. The article famous partially:
Collision restore store proprietor Steve Piispanen didn’t rent an legal professional as a result of he considers them to be ‘not educated’ in the case of insurance coverage regulation.
He represented himself when he appealed a neighborhood decide’s choice to dismiss a $1,093.37 declare towards State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. He wrote his personal transient and personally appeared to make oral arguments earlier than the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Piispanen has no authorized coaching. ‘Heck no,’ he mentioned. ‘I just winged it.’
…
Piispanen filed a small claims criticism. State Farm argued that the coverage issued to Meagher clearly states that any task of advantages is invalid until State Farm approves the task. Circuit Court Judge James Gleason dismissed the declare with out explaining the rationale.
That didn’t finish the struggle. Piispanen is the third-generation proprietor of an auto physique store that was based in 1928 by a Finnish immigrant. He mentioned he frequently confers with different ‘like-minded’ auto physique store house owners and knew that courts in different states haven’t appeared favorably on insurance coverage contracts that bar post-loss assignment-of-benefit claims.
He mentioned State Farm had refused to pay for components that clearly had to get replaced. For instance, the insurer insisted that he set up a halogen headlight quite than the LED headlight that was supplied by the unique tools producer, which price $300 extra. The insurer additionally refused to pay for calibration of the automobile’s security techniques.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court appeared on the State Farm coverage language to make its willpower:
We merely clarify that, given the language of the anti-assignment clause, nothing within the coverage prevents the insured from assigning his proper — arising post-loss — to a decision of the dispute with State Farm as to a good and cheap worth. Any protection accessible to State Farm in an motion filed by the insured — for instance, that the declare can’t be maintained due to New Hampshire Administrative Rule, Ins 1002.17 — can be accessible to State Farm in an motion filed by Keene Auto Body.
The apparent query is “why don’t the insurance companies change the policy language to unequivocally prevent post loss assignment of benefits?” I anticipate that they are going to. This victory could also be quick lived. I additionally anticipate that this pattern will happen all through the United States and that insurers will proceed to struggle task of coverage proceeds with totally different coverage language.
Thought For The Day
Stay targeted and keep decided. Don’t look to anybody else to be your willpower – have self-determination. It will take you very far.
—Justice Smith
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1 Keene Auto Body v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 2021-0156 (N.H. Nov. 15, 2022).