On June 18, 2021, the Alabama Supreme Court issued its decision in Jay v. United Services Automobile Association in which it affirmed the summary judgment Ben Heinz had obtained on behalf of the firm’s client USAA from the Circuit Court of Mobile County on an uninsured motorist claim.
The Supreme Court agreed with the Circuit Court’s determination that the plaintiff was not covered under the uninsured motorist coverage of the policy held by the plaintiff’s father-in-law. The plaintiff had argued that his wife was a “named insured” under her father’s policy because her name appeared on a proof of insurance card next to the phrase “name of insured." The plaintiff argued that this in turn made him a covered person under the policy. The Supreme Court rejected this argument and instead agreed with the analysis provided by Heinz in his brief that only the father-in-law was a “named insured” and that the plaintiff did not qualify for coverage because he did not reside with a “named insured.”