{"id":6447,"date":"2017-03-03T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T10:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/?p=6447"},"modified":"2019-10-28T10:34:04","modified_gmt":"2019-10-28T10:34:04","slug":"u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits. Etherton entered a claim to Owners Insurance Co., his underinsured motorist coverage insurer, which had limits of $1 million. He requested that the company pay up to $750,000, which was the remainder of his insurance policy limit. Etherton\u2019s vehicle had only minor damage, but Etherton underwent three back surgeries to repair disk damage to his spine.<\/p>\n<p>Between July and December of 2009, he communicated frequently with Owners. Owners repeatedly indicated it needed additional information to assess his claim. On Dec. 30, 2009, Owners offered to settle the underinsured motorist claim for $150,000. Etherton asked Owners to explain the basis for the low offer. Owners responded that \u201cour $150k offer is based on the documentation you have provided to date . . . We note serious questions of causation of Mr. Etherton\u2019s injuries . . .\u201d\u00a0 Many other additional communications between Etherton and Owners failed to resolve the matter. Etherton filed this lawsuit in March 2010.<\/p>\n<p>He first filed his lawsuit in the state of Colorado, which was removed to the Federal District Court. As the jury trial approached, Owners filed a motion <em>in limine<\/em> under <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uscourts.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/Rules%20of%20Evidence.\">Federal Rule of Evidence 702,<\/a> seeking to exclude Dr. Joseph Ramos, Etherton\u2019s causation expert. Owners argued that Dr. Ramos\u2019s methodology was not reliable under Rule 702 and <a href=\"https:\/\/supreme.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/us\/509\/579\/case.html\"><em>Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc<\/em>.,<\/a> 509 U.S. 579 (1993). After a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rulesofevidence.org\/article-i\/rule-104\/\">Federal Rule of Evidence 104(a)<\/a> <em>Daubert<\/em> hearing, the presiding federal judge ruled from the bench and excluded Dr. Ramos\u2019s testimony, concluding his methodology was not reliable. Shortly thereafter, Etherton moved for reconsideration wherein the presiding judge recused herself from the case, and the case was reassigned to another judge who granted Etherton\u2019s motion to reconsider. Based upon his review of the <em>Daubert <\/em>hearing transcript, the new judge concluded Dr. Ramos\u2019s methodology was reliable and he therefore could testify.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/#more-6447\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits. Etherton entered a claim to Owners Insurance Co., his underinsured motorist coverage insurer, which had limits of $1 million. He requested that the company pay up to $750,000, which was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":795,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[163,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-damages","category-experts","category-insurance-claims"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract &#8212; Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract &#8212; Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Kreisman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract &#8212; Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog","description":"Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. 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The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Robert Kreisman","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/","url":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/","name":"U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract &#8212; Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-03T10:00:11+00:00","dateModified":"2019-10-28T10:34:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/#\/schema\/person\/5e5596abf7be77fdabc788f0a78f042b"},"description":"Donald Etherton was injured in a rear-end car crash. The other driver\u2019s insurer settled with Etherton for $250,000, which was the insurance policy limits.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/u-s-court-appeals-affirms-2-25-million-jury-verdict-underinsured-motorist-coverage-claim-breach-contract\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"U.S. Court of Appeals Affirms $2.25 Million Jury Verdict for Underinsured Motorist Coverage Claim and Breach of Contract"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/","name":"Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Chicago Illinois Accident Attorney \u2014 Robert Kreisman","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/#\/schema\/person\/5e5596abf7be77fdabc788f0a78f042b","name":"Robert Kreisman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/58b55a1897459940cd9ce9dd16ac900f835174ed4e07875d30af769176f577ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/58b55a1897459940cd9ce9dd16ac900f835174ed4e07875d30af769176f577ae?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Robert Kreisman"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com"]}]}},"yoast":{"focuskw":"","title":"","metadesc":"","linkdex":"","metakeywords":"","meta-robots-noindex":"","meta-robots-nofollow":"","meta-robots-adv":"","canonical":"","redirect":"","opengraph-title":"","opengraph-description":"","opengraph-image":"","twitter-title":"","twitter-description":"","twitter-image":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7H0vI-1FZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6447"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7440,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6447\/revisions\/7440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertkreisman.com\/injury-lawyer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}