Defendant's Attorney: Not Available

Description: Muskogee, Oklahoma personal injury lawyer represented the Plaintiff who sued on a civil rights theory.
forceable and unambiguous. We therefore affirm.

Mr. Osterhout was badly beaten during a traffic stop by Mr. Morgan, the
former Undersheriff of LeFlore County. Mr. Osterhout filed suit seeking damages
from Mr. Morgan under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for excessive use of force. At trial, the jury
found in his favor and returned a judgment of $3 million in compensatory damages 2
and $1 million in punitive damages. As a result of the judgment, Mr. Osterhout
initiated a garnishment proceeding against ACCO-SIG based on its Liability
Coverage Agreement with Mr. Morgan’s former employer, LeFlore County. ACCO-
SIG moved for summary judgment, arguing that Mr. Morgan’s conduct was not
covered by the Agreement.

* * *

Oklahoma applies the doctrine of reasonable expectations only “to the
construction of ambiguous insurance contracts or to contracts containing exclusions
which are masked by technical or obscure language or which are hidden in policy
provisions.” Max True Plastering Co. v. U.S. Fid. and Guar. Co., 912 P.2d 861, 863
(Okla. 1996) (emphasis added). “Under this doctrine, if the insurer or its agent
creates a reasonable expectation of coverage in the insured which is not supported by
policy language, the expectation will prevail over the language of the policy.” Id. at
864. If a policy is unambiguous, “the employed language is accorded its ordinary,
plain meaning and enforced so as to carry out the parties’ intentions.” Bituminous
Cas. Corp. v. Cowen Constr., Inc., 55 P.3d 1030, 1033 (Okla. 2002)

Outcome: Summary judgment in favor of Defendants.

Affirmed

Plaintiff's Experts:

Defendant's Experts:

Comments: