Grandparents: Don't Let Your Grandkids Drive Your Car with Your Kids In It!
A recent Florida Supreme Court opinion illustrates the complexities and absurdities of insurance law. While visiting grandparents, a grandchild was allowed to drive grandma's car and take her parents with her as passengers. An accident occurred and the grandchild and her parents were severely injured. Believe it or not, the insurance carrier refused to cover the accident! Why? Because while the grandchild was driving the car, she was insured under grandma's policy. Her parents and she both lived in the same house, albeit separate and apart from the grandparents. Because the parents were relatives residing in the same household as the child and the child was an insured under grandma's policy, the insurance carrier was allowed to refuse to provide coverage for the damages because of an archaic law disfavoring coverage for lawsuits between two insureds under the same policy.
What makes this decision absurd is that if grandma had been driving, then the parents injuries would have been covered because the parents and grandma did not live in the same household! This is a decision that will likely result in more examples of insurance carriers refusing to cover accidents because of perceived loopholes and absurdities in the law.
For information on your rights under Florida's insurance laws and personal injury laws, feel free to call Joseph Fields for a free consultation. He offers a full range of legal services regarding motor vehicle accidents and insurance disputes. Mr. Fields lectures frequently on motor vehicle accident insurance disputes.
