Many ERISA plans and insurance policies contain provisions excluding coverage for losses caused by the insured’s intoxication. In cases where the plan or insurer asserts such an exclusion, the question becomes what evidence must the insurer put forward in order to prove the insured was intoxicated and the exclusion applies?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently answered that question in White v. Life Insurance Company of North America. Life Insurance Company of North America (“LINA”) issued an ERISA-governed life insurance policy insuring Mr. White with Mrs. White as the beneficiary. Mr. White was killed in a horrible car crash in which his vehicle crossed the center line and struck an oncoming 18-wheeler head-on.
LINA denied coverage asserting the policy’s intoxication exclusion precluded coverage because Mr. White was drunk at the time of the crash. Weather and road conditions were clear at the time of the crash, Mr. White’s vehicle appeared to function properly, and paramedics reported smelling alcohol on Mr. White’s breath. Hospital staff took blood and urine samples from Mr. White that tested negative for alcohol but contained undefined amounts of amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepine, and cannabinoids. The tests were preliminary and only indicated the presence, not the amount, of controlled substances.
The Court agreed with Mrs. White. The LINA life insurance policies excluded coverage for death “caused” by Mr. White’s intoxication. The policy (borrowing from Arkansas law) defined intoxication to mean “influenced or affected by the ingestion of alcohol [or] a controlled substance…to such a degree that the driver’s reactions, motor skills, and judgment are substantially altered and the driver, therefore, constitutes a clear and substantial danger or physical injury to himself or herself or another person.”
The Court found LINA’s evidence failed to meet the policy definition of intoxication. LINA relied on the opinion of a toxicologist who opined it was impossible to estimate the level of Mr. White’s impairment at the time of the crash based on the preliminary test results. The toxicologist opined only that “in the absence of any other cause of the collision, the drugs in [Mr. White’s] system could explain his level of impairment that resulted in his crash.”
Accordingly, the Court entered judgment in favor of Mrs. White. The White case is an important reminder that ERISA plans and insurers cannot deny claims by asserting exclusions that lack tangible factual support.
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