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Court affirms insurance cancellation because of prior DWI Thursday, Feb 23, 2006 Sent Feb. 22, 2006 rmjj By Rob Moritz Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - An insurance company had the right to refuse to cover a claim because the person insured lied on an application about a previous DWI conviction, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The ruling affirmed Sebastian County Circuit Judge James Marschewski, who allowed Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co. to refuse to cover a claim filed by former KFSM Channel 5 employee Chet M. Bonar III after Bonar was involved in a 2003 fatal wreck. Marschewski ruled that Bonar's insurance policy was invalid because when Bonar applied for coverage in 1994, he lied on the form when asked if anyone in his household had ever been arrested and if his driver's license had ever been suspended or revoked. Bonar was arrested in 1991 for driving while intoxicated and his license was suspended, the court record showed. Bonar was charged in 2003 with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and driving on a suspended license after a car he was driving car struck a motorcycle at a Fort Smith intersection. Ryan Walton, a 20-year-old passenger on the motorcycle, died in the wreck. Bonar was later convicted of leaving the scene of a personal injury accident and given a three-year suspended prison sentence. He was also fined $10,000 and ordered to perform 500 hours of community service. Bonar filed a claim with Southern Farm Bureau asking for $3,050, the cash value of his vehicle which was totaled in the wreck, plus attorney's fees and a 12 percent penalty, according Wednesday's decision. The insurance company refused to cover the claim, saying the policy was invalid because Bonar misrepresented himself on the application. In his appeal, Bonar argued that Marschewski erred when he allowed Southern Farm Bureau to president evidence of his prior DWI . He also argued that the judge erred when he ruled that the agent handling Bonar's insurance application would have rejected it if he had told the truth on the original application. The Court of Appeals, in a decision written by Judge Andree Layton Roaf, disagreed. "At issue here is Southern Farm Bureau's assertion of Bonar's misrepresentations as an affirmative defense to Bonar's cause of action," Roaf wrote. "Southern Farm Bureau is not asserting a cause of action; therefore, Bonar's argument that the trial court erred in allowing evidence of Bonar's prior DWI conviction and his misrepresentation in the insurance application is misplaced." Roaf said that the court's determination that the insurance agent would have rejected the application was supported by the evidence. She said the agent had the authority to reject the policy request. |
