Liability insurance is, by definition, a product that provides financial protection when things don't turn out as planned. Most of the time when this occurs, it's simply a case of bad luck or because things simply happen. But there are other instances in which liability claims are the result of actions that were so ill-conceived or foolhardy that a claim was utterly predictable.
Eventually such incredulous behavior leads to a lawsuit, which leads to an insurance claim —which leads to a coverage dispute, which leads to a reported decision, which leads to the final stage of this insurance circle of life: an appearance in my "Coverage for Dummies" Hall of Fame.
It's easy to make fun of these cases. But the list — grouped here by insurance category — actually says a lot about the role of insurance in society. In many of the cases, the court is required to address whether people can pass off responsibility for knowingly foolish conduct under policies designed to prevent "accidents."
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