Insurance company in Foster crash suit denies KRS violation

Commonwealth Journal (Somerset, KY)

Sept. 28--The insurance agency holding the policy on the aircraft in which Scott T. Foster and three others were killed has filed an answer in federal court to allegations of a violation of the Kentucky Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act.

U.S. Specialty Insurance Company (USSIC), contends that their policy only allows for $100,000 per person injured/deceased, meaning the estates of all of the victims in the November 2017 crash are entitled to $100,000 per each victim

That includes Doug Whitaker, an attorney with Foster's law firm and a former chaplain for the Somerset Police Department

Whitaker's widow, Sara Whitaker, claims that the insurance company should pay out $100,000 for each of Doug Whitaker's surviving family members -- herself and three minor children -- and $100,000 to Doug Whitaker's estate, or $500,000 total.

Sara Whitaker filed a counterclaim against USSIC in August after USSIC filed the case in U.S. District Court in May.

The original suit seeks to have a ruling in the dispute between the two parties over how much the Whitaker family is owed.

One of the estate's assertions is that the policy violates the Kentucky Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act because the policy for the six-seater plane states that the "Single Limit Bodily Injury/Property Damage" limit for each person is $1 million, but also states that limit for each individual passenger on the plane is $100,000.

If the plane had been at capacity, according to Whitaker's claim, the highest amount that could have been paid out was $600,000.

"[T]herefore, the per-person coverage could never reach the per-occurrence limit solely by providing coverage of $100,000 per passenger on the plane, even if fully occupied," the counterclaim states.

In USSIC's answer to the counterclaim, denies that it violated Kentucky law, as well as denying the interpretation of the policy's wording that Whitaker puts forth.

USSIC states that the policy's wording shows that the line item for "each person" says it is a $100,000 single limit, but the policy's $1 million limit is for "...all bodily injury and property damage" for "each occurrence."

USSIC also denies that Whitaker's insurance claim should be awarded because it should be "barred as a result of the good faith and reasonable conduct of USSIC and its adjusters, agents and/or other employees in handling the Defendants' claims, and because of the lack of fraud, malice, or outrageous or wrongful conduct by USSIC."

The suit stems from an airplane crash in which Foster, Whitaker, Kyle Stewart and Foster's son, Noah Foster, were killed.

The crash occurred on November 12 around 2 p.m. in a wooded area in Fountain Run, a community in Barren County. The four were returning to the Lake Cumberland Regional Airport after participating in a hunting trip in Tennessee. Scott Foster was the owner of the Piper PA-32-260, and was piloting the craft at the time.

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