'DRE-E-E-E-EAM…dream, dream, dream…." That old Everly Brothers song was drifting through my head, and I couldn't shake it. That the tune was making it difficult to focus on my student's question was appropriate, since it was her question that inspired the song to rise from the dark recesses of my memory. (Amazing how, as the years go by, you find you can forget the name of your pastor with whom you spoke last Sunday, yet recall perfectly a song you haven't heard in four decades.)

How did an insurance seminar question resurrect a 1950′s Golden Oldie? A student insisted that an insurance carrier was morally and legally bound to ignore the plain wording of a policy it had issued in full faith to an insured. Her argument was not highly technical, nor founded in case law. It was all based on one word: "fair." As in, "It's just not fair that a company could do that. No way can they get away with that. Are you telling me the insurance commissioner is going to allow that?"

If you're wondering what led her to call down the regulatory authorities on the head of any carrier so callous as to honor its policy wording, I must say, "nonessential information, grasshopper." Even the fact that the majority of the class was on her side doesn't alter the real issue: Claims settlement isn't about "fairness," it's about coverage.