New Jersey law applied and that the insurer must provide indemnification coverage with respect to a medical malpractice claim.

In this insurance coverage action, the court conducted a choice of law analysis and concluded that New Jersey Law applied to the medical malpractice policy issued to a Rhode Island doctor. In his application for insurance, the doctor had falsely claimed that a majority of his practice was conducted in Rhode Island. The alleged malpractice had occurred in New Jersey upon a New Jersey resident, and the policy covered the doctor’s out-of-state practice. The appellate court held that the trial court had properly determined that the malpractice insurer must provide indemnification coverage based on the same analysis and reasoning applied in cases pertaining to compulsory auto insurance, i.e., the insurer’s remedy of rescission was limited so that the minimum compulsory amount of malpractice insurance remained available to the plaintiffs, who were an innocent patient and spouse claiming injury by the doctor’s malpractice.

Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter, July 2014