Home is where the womb is: New York deems unborn infant to live with mother and father at the time of accident.

With his father’s permission, a son was driving a vehicle with his pregnant mother as a passenger when he negligently struck another vehicle. The mother, on behalf of her child, later brought a lawsuit against the father and son. The father’s insurance carrier denied coverage. The applicable policy language excluded coverage for bodily injury to “any other person who both resides primarily with an insured” and is related. The policyholders argued that the language was ambiguous, but the court disagreed and found that the unborn infant resided with the father at the time of the accident because the mother resided with the father. As a result, no coverage was found to exist.

_{Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2016}

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