Destroyed Community Property, Damaged Persons, and Insurers’ Duty to Indemnify Innocent Spouses and Other Co-Insured Fiduciaries: An Attempt to Harmonize Conflicting Federal and State Courts’ Declaratory Judgments

Date

2009

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Estate Planning & Community Property Law Journal

Abstract

One of the most common and expensive purchases of the general American consumer is insurance policies. These policies can range from life to property protections. One of the key reasons for maintaining an insurance policy is deviant fiduciaries that destroy the interest of other fiduciaries. However, one of the major issues is that many of the insurance policies purchased are standard that are poorly drafted with ambiguous language. This leads, naturally, to litigation, subjecting state and federal courts to interpret the contracts. Often, innocent co-fiduciaries suffer because of the harmful acts of another fiduciary because the standard insurance contract does not protect their interests’ adequately. Data explored in this article shows that traditional contract interpretation is the most beneficial to innocent parties. The most critical point, however, is to thoroughly understand and negotiate insurance contracts.

Description

Keywords

Community property, Duty to indemnify, Fiduciary, Insurance, Liability, Innocent spouses, Innocent co-fiduciary, Co-insured fiduciary

Citation

2 EST. PLAN. & COMMUNITY PROP. L. J. 63