Insurance Coverage Exclusion

Many times insurance policies have various exclusions from liability.  Many times the theory of liability has to get around the exclusions.  However, the Mississippi Supreme Court had a case yesterday that considerably affirmed how narrow these theories can be in Gray v. Arch Specialty Insurance Co. located here.  The issue in the case was an individual's coverage for death resulting from medical malpractice.  There was a specific exclusion in the insurance coverage providing no coverage for losses resulting from medical malpractice.  The Plaintiff went on a theory of negligent training, negligent hiring, etc. related to the doctor.  The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the granting of summary judgment.  The Court stated that "Arch maintains that a plaintiff’s legal theory does not determine the applicability of exclusions; if an exclusion applies, then it applies to all theories of liability. We agree. The Court has held that, if the injury would not have resulted “but for” the excluded service, then the exclusion applies to all theories of liability.”. The English version of this is that if you have any theory of loss that was caused by medical malpractice, any theory of liability in that policy is covered by the exclusion.