Indemnification

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Great West Casualty Company v. Pamela K. Robbins

Case No.: 15-1181

Officials: EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Indemnification

Insurance company not required to indemnify respondents

“Robbins’s other efforts to have us apply § 194.41 are also unpersuasive. The estate directs us to Mullenberg v. Kilgust Mechanical, Inc., 612 N.W.2d 327 (Wis. 2000), for the proposition that whenever an insurance company certifies a policy “as proof of financial responsibility” in a state and the under‐ lying policy states it will conform itself with applicable motor‐ carrier financial responsibility provisions of any states where the policy has been certified, its policy must conform to the insurance laws of that state, even if the accident does not occur within that state’s boundaries. Of course, Mullenberg does not stand for this proposition. If it did, it would mean that Robbins in this case could select from the insurance laws of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, and ask a court to apply the law of the state that is most favorable, even if the accident and the parties had no connection to that particular state other than the insurance company’s certification. That would be an absurd result.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.