Family Wins $3.96 Million Wrongful-Death Judgment, Then Defeats Insurer's Bid to Rescind Truck Policy
After trial: The federal court ordered the insurer to pay the full face amount of the policy plus 10 percent interest from January 21, 2011, so the insurer's share was limited to that coverage. We could not confirm whether the insurer appealed again or how much of the judgment has been collected.
Won by Arnold Law Firm.
Scott Ryan Eisenbrandt Jr. was killed in a collision involving a hauling company's truck shortly after its owner bought a commercial policy in 2006. His widow and parents won a California Superior Court wrongful-death judgment of $3,964,030.77 against the truck's owner, entered January 21, 2011. They then defeated the owner's insurer in federal court, which had tried to rescind the commercial policy, and the court ordered the insurer to pay the policy's face amount with interest.
What happened
Scott Ryan Eisenbrandt Jr. was killed when a truck owned by Susana Isztojka, who did business as California Gold Star Hauling, was involved in a collision. The truck was being driven by her son, Ian Isztojka. Eisenbrandt's widow, Francesca, and his parents, Connie and Scott Eisenbrandt Sr., brought a wrongful-death action in the California Superior Court.
The claim ended in a judgment against Isztojka entered on January 21, 2011. The state court awarded the family $3,964,030.77 in damages. Collecting it was a separate fight.
Isztojka's commercial truck policy was a recent one. She applied for it through a broker in May 2006, and the collision happened shortly after it was issued. Her insurer, Integon Preferred Insurance Co., had already sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California to rescind the policy, arguing that Ian, who was under 25 and had a record of traffic violations, was never disclosed as a driver. The district court first agreed and rescinded the policy on summary judgment, which would have left the family with a judgment and nothing to collect it from.
The family intervened and appealed. The Ninth Circuit reversed and sent the case back, holding that a jury could find the broker acted as Integon's agent as well as Isztojka's. That question went to an advisory jury at a trial held February 22 through 25, 2011. Kirk Wolden and Christine Doyle appeared for the Eisenbrandts, and the counsel of record included the firm of Clayeo C. Arnold, A Professional Law Corporation, of Sacramento. Isztojka did not appear. Integon was represented by Robert Latham and Paul Loreto.
The jury found that the broker had led Isztojka to believe Ian was covered and that Integon had given the broker authority to say so. The court adopted both findings. On April 27, 2011, Judge Timothy Burgess denied Integon's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and ruled that the policy had never been rescinded.
The court ordered Integon to pay the family the full face amount of the policy, with interest at 10 percent a year running from January 21, 2011, plus taxable costs of the federal action. The court declined to make the insurer pay the larger state-court costs or prejudgment interest, because California law limited what a policy could be made to cover beyond its limit. The balance of the judgment stayed with Isztojka.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
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