Firm News
INDIANA LAW: Collateral Estoppel in Insurance Company Disputes Clarified
In Carpenter v. Lovell’s Lounge & Grill, LLC, the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the firm’s client, an insurance carrier that had denied coverage for a claim arising out of an assault and battery in a bar. The Court of Appeals held the insurer was not collaterally estopped from challenging the consent judgment entered into between the plaintiff and the defendant bar because the consent judgment was procured by bad faith and/or collusion and was properly set aside. This ruling allowed the insurance carrier to avoid payment of a very significant consent judgment.