{"id":1199,"date":"2010-05-04T07:20:16","date_gmt":"2010-05-04T15:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theathleteslawyer.com\/?p=1199"},"modified":"2010-05-04T07:20:16","modified_gmt":"2010-05-04T15:20:16","slug":"blacksburg-beer-pong-game-fight-virginia-supreme-court-rules-insurance-coverage-for-fractured-skull-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2010\/05\/04\/blacksburg-beer-pong-game-fight-virginia-supreme-court-rules-insurance-coverage-for-fractured-skull-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Blacksburg "Beer Pong" game fight; Virginia Supreme Court rules -insurance coverage for fractured skull injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though not an Intercollegiate or Olympic Sport, “Beer Pong” is very popular on many college campuses. Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau participates in many unusual athletic events, and has competed on college campuses all over the United States, but not Beer Pong. Beer pong, where players play table tennis and have to drink beer at the same time, usually involves cases of beer and not legal cases. The beer pong case ruled upon by the Virginia Supreme Court<\/a> has been much discussed in the legal press since being handed down several weeks ago.<\/p>\n

After finishing final exams at Virginia Tech, Adam Copp was celebrating and playing beer pong with one of his roommates at a Blacksburg apartment. Two strangers joined the game and one of them, Carson Dugger, said something to offend Copp. The young men then got into a shouting match that turned physical when Dugger’s friends came on the scene. Copp found himself with four or five people between him and Dugger. Copp swung his arm and struck one of Dugger’s friends, Gregory Jacobson. Copp said he was just trying to get free from the group. Jacobson accused Copp of throwing punches and hitting him intentionally. Jacobson, the plaintiff in this case, was badly injured. Two surgeries were required to repair his fractured skull. Jacobson brought a lawsuit as the result of his severe and permanent head injuries against Copp for assault and battery, alleging intentional injury.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court of Virginia’s decision ruled that an insurance company owes a defense for the Virginia Tech student who was sued over injuries he caused in this fight. Nationwide Insurance had a duty to defend Copp, the court ruled, because its umbrella policy contained language providing coverage for bodily injury caused by an insured “trying to protect person or property.” The “self-defense” exception required looking beyond the “eight corners” of the policy and the Complaint, the court held.<\/p>\n

Nationwide Insurance had won at the trial level, getting the Circuit Court to rule that it owed no duty to defend Copp in the lawsuit. The homeowner’s policy and the umbrella policy excluded liability for intentional acts causing personal injury, but the umbrella policy contained an exception: the exclusion “does not apply to bodily injury or property damage caused by an insured trying to protect person or property.”<\/p>\n

In prior decisions, the court required review of only the “four corners” of the complaint and the “four corners” of the policy to decide if an insurer has a duty to defend and indemnify its insured. The analysis of both documents was referred to as the “eight corners rule.” The unusual “self-defense” exception in the umbrella policy, however, required consideration of Copp’s evidence, the Supreme Court held in an opinion authored by Senior Justice Harry L. Carrico. “[I]t requires consideration of an insured’s claim that he or she caused bodily injury or property damage trying to protect person or property in evaluating whether there is a duty to defend in a given case,” Carrico wrote. The case citation is: Copp v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company<\/a>, No. 090345, (April 15, 2010); appealed from Montgomery County Circuit Court (Judge Turk presiding).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though not an Intercollegiate or Olympic Sport, “Beer Pong” is very popular on many college campuses. Triathlon Trial Lawyer Doug Landau participates in many unusual athletic events, and has competed on college campuses all over the United States, but not Beer Pong. Beer pong, where players play table tennis and have to drink beer at…<\/p>\n

Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[101,457,1410,1483,1840,1874,2257,2631,2894,3519,4667,5251,5252],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cases","tag-abrams-landau","tag-beer-pong","tag-college-beer-pong-injury","tag-copp-nationwidfe-mutual-insurance","tag-doug-landau","tag-drinking-game-injury-case","tag-fractured-skull-injury-lawyer","tag-herndon-reston-area-law-firm","tag-injured-athlete","tag-montgomery-county-circuit-court-injury-case","tag-skull-fracture-lawyer-landau","tag-triathlon-trial-lawyer","tag-triathlon-trial-lawyer-doug-landau"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBlacksburg "Beer Pong" game fight; Virginia Supreme Court rules -insurance coverage for fractured skull injury - Sports Injury Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/landauinjurylaw.com\/theathleteslawyer\/2010\/05\/04\/blacksburg-beer-pong-game-fight-virginia-supreme-court-rules-insurance-coverage-for-fractured-skull-injury\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blacksburg "Beer Pong" game fight; Virginia Supreme Court rules -insurance coverage for fractured skull injury - Sports Injury Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Though not an Intercollegiate or Olympic Sport, “Beer Pong” is very popular on many college campuses. 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