Blethen Gage & Krause attorneys Kevin Velasquez and Ben McAninch obtained a favorable opinion from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on August 11, 2015. Mr. Velasquez and Mr. McAninch represented two landowners against Grinnell Mutual Insurance Company in an insurance coverage dispute, in which Grinnell declined to provide coverage pursuant to its farm liability policy when an ATV injury occurred on their property.
The case turned on the specific policy language in an exclusion chosen by Grinnell in drafting its policy. Simply stated, Judge Joan Erickson of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota agreed with Mr. Velasquez and Mr. McAninch that the policy exclusion Grinnell Mutual sought to use to avoid coverage was not applicable. The Eighth Circuit agreed with Judge Erickson and with Mr. McAninch and Mr. Velasquez’s interpretation, and ordered Grinnell to provide coverage.
