NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – An insurance company will not have to pay to fight a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of a woman who was kidnapped from a Louisiana hotel and later found drowned.
The Louisiana Supreme Court made that determination on June 29 in the case of Lia Kazan, who was abducted from a motel in Alexandria by Anthony Murray. Her car was later found in Lake Dubuisson with the bodies of both inside.
Her parents sued the motel’s owner, Vitthal LLC, and its insurer, Great Lakes Insurance Company. But a clause in the insurance contract bars coverage for acts of “assault,” “battery” and “physical altercation.”
Though the entire incident wasn’t captured by surveillance cameras, audio has Kazan screaming “no” and “stop” while blowing her car’s horn. Murray had attacked her while she was retrieving something from her car in the parking lot.
“The facts of this case are undoubtedly tragic,” the court opinion says. “Nonetheless, absent a conflict with statutory provisions or public policy, insurers are entitled to limit their liability by imposing reasonable conditions upon the policy obligations they contractually assume.
“This is what Great Lakes did in the CGL Policy at issue here.”
The “physical altercation” section of the contract defined it as a dispute between individuals in which one or more sustain bodily injury. Citing the dictionary, a “dispute” is a “verbal controversy” or “quarrel,” the opinion says.
“Lia is clearly overheard to be in a ‘dispute’ with Murray wherein she is taken against her will and ultimately ‘sustain(s) bodily injury’ in her death by drowning,” the decision says.