Five years ago, Gail Boertmann and her son Chris, both of the Detroit area, were coming home from a wedding, he on his motorcycle and she in her car behind him. Another car collided with the motorcycle, and Chris was killed. His mother, quite understandably, was traumatized not just by the death of her child but by having actually watched the fatal accident right before her very eyes.
She was so messed up, in fact, that she could not function, lost her job as a result, and required significant therapy to treat what her psychologists called post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression. She filed a claim with Cincinnati Insurance, the carrier of her automobile insurance policy, for $30,000 in lost wages and medical costs because she was in her car when the trauma occurred.
The insurance company denied her claim, saying that her (mental) injury had nothing to do with her being in her car at the time -- she could have suffered the same effects if she had witnessed the accident while standing on the street corner. Boertmann sued and won. Cincinnati Insurance appealed, and last year the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. The case is now going to the Michigan Supreme Court, which should have the last word.
That word ought to be, seriously?
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