Liars may never prosper | Zalma on insurance

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Cheryl Tisdale was injured in a car collision while driving her own vehicle with passengers while logged into the Uber Technologies (“Uber”) application as a paid driver. Tisdale served the Farmers Insurance Exchange with the complaint seeking underinsured motorist (“UM”) coverage under a policy that Farmers issued to Raiser, LLC, an Uber subsidiary.

IN Tisdale v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, No. A23A0616, Court of Appeals of Georgia (June 27, 2023) Farmers moved for summary judgment, arguing that Tisdale did not qualify as an insured under the Uber policy, or, in the alternative, that she was barred from seeking coverage because she intentionally concealed or misrepresented material facts and committed fraud by using a false identity in her Uber driver application and while using the app. The district court granted summary judgment to Farmers. Tisdale appealed.

FACTS

Tisdale was an Uber driver from 2015 to 2017. According to her deposition, at some point, “Uber stopped [her] from driving because they did a background check [,] and something appeared there. . . they disagreed.” In 2019, not believing Uber would hire her under her real name, Tisdale applied to work for Uber under the name “Annie Mollie.” Uber approved “Mollie’s” application and Tisdale began driving for Uber as Annie Mollie .

In April 2020, Tisdale was involved in a car accident with Graves while driving her own car, which was registered under her legal name, and while logged into the driver version of the Uber app as Annie Mollie. Tisdale gave a recorded statement to Farmers as “Annie Mollie.”

In May 2020, Tisdale sued Graves for damages stemming from the accident, alleging that he rear-ended her, pushed her vehicle into the path of another vehicle, which hit her, and that she incurred more than $184,000 in medical expenses.

At the time of the accident, Tisdale had not entered into any agreement to use the Uber app in her own name/capacity, and Uber had not authorized her to drive as an Uber driver; instead, Tisdale drove her vehicle while logged into the Uber app with a false identity. Under these circumstances, Tisdale did not qualify as an insured under the policy Farmer’s issued to Uber.

ANALYSIS

The hallmark of contract construction is to establish the intent of the parties, according to the language of the contract. As a result, when the language of an insurance policy defining the extent of an insurer’s liability is unambiguous and can only be reasonably construed, courts must enforce the contract as written and agreed upon by the parties.

Tisdale served its own UM carrier – State Farm Fire and Casualty Company – and Farmers with a copy of the complaint and discovery requests. Farmers, in response, alleged that coverage for Tisdale under Uber’s UM policy was invalid.

Farmers moved for summary judgment, alleging that Tisdale intentionally concealed or misrepresented material facts and committed fraud by using a false identity on her Uber application and that when she used the app she did not qualify as an insured under the Uber policy, and she was prevented from seeking coverage based on the fraud provision in the policy. The district court granted summary judgment to Farmers.

Tisdale admits she intentionally misrepresented her identity and gave Uber a fake driver’s license and insurance card to become a driver. This misrepresentation and fraud gave her coverage under Bonden’s policy, which expressly bars the payment of damages to a driver who commits fraud or intentionally misrepresents or conceals a material fact relating to coverage. Therefore, the Court of Appeals granted summary judgment to Farmers.

It takes a lot of chutzpah (unrefined bile) to get fired by Uber for cause, rejoin Uber under a false name, and then assert a right to Uber policy benefits. Tisdale was punished by her lies and was not allowed to profit from her deception.

(c) 2023 Barry Zalma & ClaimSchool, Inc.

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