I don't understand why they aren't going after the dead guy's insurance. He's the one who was at fault, not the owner of the car, so his insurance should be the one to pay for the injuries.
If the person didn't have their own car, I would be surprised if they had their own car insurance. The victims could sue the estate, but there might not be a lot of money in it.
In my state, you can't get auto insurance without a car. You can be a licensed driver, you can have money to hand the insurance company for your premium, but if you don't own a car, you can't get car insurance. I don't know if you could get general liability insurance that would also cover you driving other people's cars.
But if it's the car that's insured, why do specific drivers have to be listed on the policy? The way I understand it is even if I'm not listed on someone's policy and I'm driving their car, their auto insurance covers my fuck up when I cause an accident.
Doesn't seem right, but I suppose that's the way it works.
When you're driving someone else's car, their collision/comprehensive insurance covers damage to their car (although there's a chance their insurance company will decline to pay or decide to sue you depending on the circumstances). Your liability insurance covers personal injury and property damage that you cause to others.
Drivers are listed for two reasons. The first is because a big chunk of car insurance is liability insurance. The second is because the probability of the insurance company having to pay to repair or replace your car depends on the likelihood one of the drivers will cause an accident.
This is all made more complicated by the fact that personal injury lawsuits are a numbers game. If the driver didn't have insurance and their estate has very little money, it doesn't matter that making them liable is a slam dunk case. It's not worth the effort. On the other hand, if the car owner has insurance, is alive, and has a lifetime income potential in the tens of millions of dollars, that's worth a lawsuit even if the probability of success is lower.
It feels scummy, but most personal injury lawyers are investing in cases. They'll be happy to take a lower probability chance on a bigger return. It's not all that different from venture capital, although you could argue pretty easily that VCs are a more positive force for social good and value creation.
It seems like EasyRide doesn't follow the rental companies time tested way of doing insurance. Having a company policy is interesting, the problem is the courts assume company policies cover vehicles "owned" (through actual ownership or lease) by a company and driven by employees or people under their hire (e.g. consultants). They probably should have gone with part of the fee being an actual insurance policy for the driver for the car. It would be a much easier and known business scenario for the courts.
If your business model requires new rulings by the courts, then you better have deep pockets.
The insurance company can't have the cake and.eat it too.
Either the owner pay as if she wasn't doing a business, or the dead guy's pay as if he was driving a rental. Mine is pretty basic and i can pay my deductible for rentals.
Because that's not how car insurance works. You purchase a policy to insure your car (and in most cases other drivers in your family). Car insurance doesn't insure the individual against whatever vehicle he may be operating on any given day. That's why your car insurance is based upon the make/model/year of your car, as well as which state it is registered in, how many miles you drive it per day, etc.
It also seems from the article that they haven't determined who was at fault.
That actually is how car insurance works. There's a property insurance component ("collision" and "comprehensive") that insures you against loss or damage to your property. Then there's a more expensive liability insurance component that insures you against liability as a driver of any car. The property insurance portion is optional as long as you own your car outright.
Liability is the "required" part of insurance in most states. It follows you from car to car.
What has likely happened is that they person who rented the car didn't have insurance of their own. That seems likely, since it's kind of pointless to have automotive liability insurance if you don't own a car. Even more so if you're used to purchasing insurance at the point of sale when you rent a car.
Car insurance generally "follows the car." If you lend your car to your buddy and he gets into an accident, your insurer is the primary. If you don't have insurance on the car, then if he has insurance it may cover some of the associated costs. That all gets settled in court.
Driver liability is primary. The owner's insurance only comes into play in case the driver isn't insured or it doesn't cover full costs. That's the standard at least.
You insure a vehicle. If the vehicle is insured, then that insurer is the primary, so in the event of a claim, that is the insurance company on the hook.
Now it is true that when you sign an insurance policy, part of the contract makes the insurance company liable for the driver if he is in an accident in another vehicle and for whatever reason there isn't a primary or the primary uses subrogation to recoup damages from that insurer.
But that is not the most common case, and certainly shouldn't be used as the standard for what to expect would happen in this case.
Have you ever heard that women's insurance rates are typically more expensive than men's because they lend their cars more often to others? Now why would that be if the drivers were responsible as opposed to the vehicle insurer? Again, civil law is not black and white. Insurance companies have teams of lawyers in every major city in the country to fight their way out of claims when possible and certainly there are times that they succeed in recouping some damages from other insurers. My point was that this is not the norm. The primary insurance company is the first in line when a claim is to be made.
That's true for covering the material damage, but in my understanding the liability for corporal damage/medical costs is not as black & white, and falls on the driver first.
Some car insurance policies cover rental cars. My insurance covers car rentals, so that I don't need to pay for the insurance coverage when I rent a car.
From the article: "According to a preliminary police report, their car was hit by an oncoming car that seemed to have been traveling south in their northbound lane. The report concluded that Mr. Fortuna would be found at fault."