Intoxication
Adam V. Russo | July 28, 2009
In Eckelberry v. Reliastar Life Insurance Co., 469 F.3d 340, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the insurer’s determination that the decedent’s fatal automobile collision did not qualify as an “accident” as defined under the subject ERISA plan. The insured died after he lost control of his car and collided headlong into the rear of a tractor trailer parked on the side of the road. At the time of the collision, the insured was not wearing his seat belt, and his blood alcohol level was 50 percent higher than the state’s legal limit. For purposes of establishing coverage, the plan defined accident as an “unexpected and sudden event in which the insured does not foresee.” The court determined that absent evidence of an insured’s subjective intent, an “objective analysis” governs whether death was “unexpected” when that term is undefined in accidental death policy. The court found that the circumstances of the insured’s accident were “perfectly consistent with his inebriated state” and noted that “all drivers know, or should know, the dire consequences of drunk driving.” In reaching its decision in favor of the insurer, the court joined what it characterized as “near universal accord that alcohol-related injuries and deaths are not ‘accidental’ under insurance contracts governed by ERISA.”
