Tennessee Auto Policy Doesn’t Cover Parents’ Distress

Tennessee’s high court has ruled that two parents’ emotional distress following an automobile accident that took the life of their son is not covered under the uninsured motorist portion of their automobile bodily injury coverage.

Under Tennessee law, every automobile liability policy must include uninsured driver coverage that allows accident victims to “recover compensatory damages from owners and operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting from injury, sickness or disease.”

State Farm’s policy specifically provided coverage for “bodily injury to a person and sickness, disease, or death that results from it.” The Garrisons argued that mental injuries should be included under coverage for “sickness and disease.”

But the state’s Supreme Court found that regardless of the reference to sickness and disease, the intent of the legislature and State Farm was to provide coverage only for conditions stemming from bodily injuries.