OneBeacon wins ruling involving deaths in police chase

Georgia’s Supreme Court overturned lower court rulings Tuesday and held that a OneBeacon Insurance Co. unit is not obligated under state law to pay $5 million in a case where a grandmother and two grandchildren were killed when their vehicle was struck by a stolen vehicle being chased by police.

Dorothy Wright and her grandchildren, Cameron Costner and Layla Patridge, were killed during the chase by officers of the College Park, Georgia, police department, according to the ruling in Atlantic Specialty Insurance Co. v. City of College Park.

College Park had an insurance policy issued by OneBeacon unit Atlantic Specialty that provided coverage for negligent acts involving the city’s motor vehicles of up to $5 million, but also included immunity endorsements that said the insurer had no duty to pay damages “unless the defenses of sovereign and governmental immunity are inapplicable.”

Plaintiffs in the case filed suit against the city, charging negligence and recklessness in the three deaths, and the city claimed sovereign immunity as a defense.

The plaintiffs asserted an insurance policy limit of $5 million should apply, while the insurer contended the policy limit was capped at $700,000 under the relevant state statute and the policy terms. The parties agreed the sovereign immunity limit of up to $700,000 was automatically waived in the case.

A trial court ruled the policy limit was $5 million and was affirmed by an appeals court. The rulings were unanimously overturned by the state Supreme Court.

“Under a plain reading of the endorsements, the insurance that the City purchased does not cover claims for damages to which the defenses of sovereign and governmental immunity do apply,” the ruling said.

“In light of the Immunity Endorsements, the City did not purchase insurance coverage for the Plaintiffs’ asserted claims above the applicable automatic sovereign immunity waiver of $700,000,” the decision said, in reversing the state appellate court.

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