Bernie Tully Personal Injury Lawyer. Phone: 412-281-8700
Today we want to discuss a HUGE new case from January 2019 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. This case has a direct impact on you if you have an injury case. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overruled the household exclusion law in the case of Gallagher v. Geico.
The victim in question was on his motorcycle and he had a bad injury. He was able to get the policy limit from the wrong doer. Then, he made a claim under his under insurance, the coverage that you can purchase through your own insurance company to make you whole if the guy who hit you has a minimal policy. He got the under insurance on his own motorcycle that he was on. However, he also had a car at his house that was also insured by Geico and he made a claim on the under insurance for his car too.
Geico had a policy, which is not unusual, that is called the household exclusion. The household exclusion provision says that if you have a policy, you can’t stack the motorcycle and the car policy onto your claim for under insurance. That was the law for many years in Pennsylvania. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court took another look at it in January 2019. After their full review of it, they said the household exclusion is no longer valid, in Pennsylvania. This is NEW Pa Supreme Court Decision case law for Pa policy holders like you.
That is really good news for us in the personal injury field and for you if you happen to be the victim of a bad injury. Because, you can now make a claim for the under insurance for the vehicle you were in and any other cars that were in your household. They call this stacking. Gallagher is a dynamite decision that may help someone who is hurt in a serious auto accident. There are some exceptions to this decision of course. But the case is a huge win for seriously injured victims of auto accidents!
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Bernie Tully Personal Injury Lawyer. Phone: 412-281-8700