Court: No Life Insurance Benefits to Widow if Husband DUI
Posted by Lawrence Taylor on November 19th, 2006Just when I thought the insanity could go no further:
Court Says Drunk Driving Violated Life Policy
Richmond, Va. Nov. 18 – ING Groep NV, the largest Dutch financial-services company, can refuse to pay a life insurance claim from the widow of a West Virginia man who drank before dying in a car crash, a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled.
Under terms of the policy, claims are payable only if an accident is "unexpected," the three-judge panel said. The man’s blood-alcohol level was 50 percent higher than the legal limit, so he knowingly put himself at risk, the court said.
So the widow gets nothing because the husband was .12% and….death was to be expected? So am I "at risk" if I’m speeding? Riding a motorcycle? Why is sky diving not risky, but DUI is? Or are we looking at yet another example of the "DUI exception"?