Who's Liable? Texas Driver was Fleeing Police when he Injured Child
If you're in an accident and the other driver is at fault, their insurance pays your medical bills, right? In most cases, this is true, but there's a case currently before the Texas Supreme Court where this may not be accurate.
According to last Friday's Austin American-Statesman, the lawsuit comes down to the question of whether an insurance company must pay for a child's injuries, even though the responsible driver was violating their policy by fleeing from police at the time.
The injured child, Roney Tanner, was seven years old when Richard Gibbons, leading a police chase through San Marcos, TX, hit the Tanner family vehicle in an intersection east of town. Roney was left comatose for a week, remained in the hospital for another month, and had to endure five years of physical therapy.
Gibbons was charged with using his truck, a red Ford F-350, as a deadly weapon. He skipped bail and disappeared, the American-Statesman said. Meanwhile the Tanners hoped that Gibbons' $300,000 auto insurance policy would pay their son's medical bills, until Nationwide Insurance said that Gibbons had violated his insurance policy.
The outcome of the case rests on the Court's interpretation of the insurance policy, which included a common "intentional acts exclusion" that voided coverage if an accident was caused deliberately.
