Megan Deluhery quoted in article on 1st Circuit insurance coverage ruling
Megan C. Deluhery is quoted in the Jan. 25 issue of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly concerning the significance of a recent insurance coverage ruling of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The 1st Circuit ruled that an auto insurance company could rescind coverage for a Massachusetts couple who failed to disclose when renewing their policy that the insured vehicle was garaged in Florida where they owned a condominium.
In 2018, the vehicle was involved in a crash in Florida that allegedly totaled a $100,000 Lamborghini insured by another carrier.
The auto insurance company filed a declaratory judgment action to establish that the policyholders had materially breached their policy under Massachusetts law by failing to disclose that their vehicle was garaged in Florida and not Massachusetts as originally declared.
Ms. Deluhery, a partner at the firm, told the publication that the decision was not a close call.
“[The policyholders] had an obligation to identify that they had left their vehicle in Florida for a whole policy year and then renewed — even if they had other intentions at the outset. Maybe it would have been a closer case if they had left [the vehicle] there for seven months and [the parties] were quibbling about whether they really understood how much of the year out of state [triggered a duty to disclose].”