Anti-Gays Scam Insurance Providers

Maple Grove High School fought like the dickens to keep its gay students from meeting. Although the Equal Access Act provides that schools have to allow all non-curricular student groups the same access, Maple Grove thought they knew better. Their ingenious legal argument? That Straights and Gays for Equity (SAGE) was not a curriculum based organization but that cheerleading, Spirit Club, synchronized swimming, and the Black Achievers all were. Nice try, but no first year law students would bet that outcome.

[JohnInToronto]

I think the postulated theory ascribes too much intelligence to the school board.

[ActsOfBeauty]

$460k to stop the GSA, and you still lose!? Ouch!

[nhjeff]

I'm not sure why any insurance company would pony up for something like this. Usually, insurance companies take control of litigation that they're on the hook for. If the school board wants to tilt at windmills, fine. But insurance companies always try to settle before they go to court. In this case, the court loss was certain.

[Rick in Kansas]

ActsOfBeauty wrote:

$460k to stop the GSA, and you still lose!? Ouch!

But since their insurance providers picked up the tab for their defense, why let a few hundred thousand dollars stand in the way of irrational bigotry? This is a fight no school district has ever won or even can win, the law and court precedents are simply and indeniably all against them. But as long as idiotic insurance companies write policies which are willing to foot the bill for their stupidity in trying to enforce their bigotry, fight on they will.

[Josh in New Orleans]

I wonder which insurance company this is and who owns it... Seems they don't know the meaning of the word "frivelous" any more than I know how to spell the word. That must be a first for insurance companies.

[ActsOfBeauty]

Josh in New Orleans wrote:

I wonder which insurance company this is and who owns it... Seems they don't know the meaning of the word "frivelous" any more than I know how to spell the word. That must be a first for insurance companies.

A sensible insurance company would have dropped this school as their client.

[Nana to Four]

Josh in New Orleans wrote:

I wonder which insurance company this is and who owns it... Seems they don't know the meaning of the word "frivelous" any more than I know how to spell the word. That must be a first for insurance companies.

LOL! Frivolous lawsuit, indeed! I just love the way you laughed at your own spelling struggles!!

Pssst.... for moments like this I keep www.dictionary.com on a Bookmark link....

[hoodathunkit]

Rick in Kansas wrote:

<quoted text>But since their insurance providers picked up the tab for their defense, why let a few hundred thousand dollars stand in the way of irrational bigotry? This is a fight no school district has ever won or even can win, the law and court precedents are simply and indeniably all against them. But as long as idiotic insurance companies write policies which are willing to foot the bill for their stupidity in trying to enforce their bigotry, fight on they will.

It makes you wonder what the clause for legal reimbursements must state or exactly who insures the school systems. It doesn't surprise me that anybody, including school officials, bring these lawsuits. There are alot of people in this country who know nothing about it or the way it works. If you listen to our politicians, it would seem that some of them don't know our laws or how the country works.

[jcofe]

What I think is so funny is that it was the "thumpers" who shoved this law through so they could have their "Bible Clubs" in the first place.

[Daniel P from Long Island]

I don't see how or why this should be covered by insurance if the school is the one clearly filing a frivolous lawsuit.

[ACLU-Tom]

Who knows, they might still do that, or at least modify the coverage to exclude lawsuits like this.

ActsOfBeauty wrote:

<quoted text>
A sensible insurance company would have dropped this school as their client.

[Happy Married Gay Couple]

Wow, some stupid insurance Litigation Examiner will probably be out of work once the company gets that bill to pay.

[Rick in Kansas]

The case here, as with every other case where this has happened, it wasn't the school district that initiated the lawsuit, but the students and the groups their selves that had to sue to get their rather obvious rights recognized. These school boards all have insurance to cover their legal defense any time they are sued, regardless of the basis of the suit, but the insurers leave it to the boards and their attorneys to decide if a suit is going to be settled or defended and the insurers just cut the check based on the policy limits. What the insurance companies need to do on this issue is to put their foot down and say, that if the districts put themselves in the position of being sued over denying the rights of a gay student club, bible study group, or any other student organization which would win under the federal law, you either settle or you pick up the tab for your own foolishness, we're not going to pay.

[nhjeff]

Rick in Kansas wrote:

<quoted text>But since their insurance providers picked up the tab for their defense, why let a few hundred thousand dollars stand in the way of irrational bigotry? This is a fight no school district has ever won or even can win, the law and court precedents are simply and indeniably all against them. But as long as idiotic insurance companies write policies which are willing to foot the bill for their stupidity in trying to enforce their bigotry, fight on they will.

Yes, but those "idiotic" insurance companies know very well how to recoup their losses in future premiums. They may as well take out a million dollar bond to be repaid by the good people of their school district, because the insurance company will be recouping at least that much.

[Josh in New Orleans]

Rick in Kansas wrote:

The case here, as with every other case where this has happened, it wasn't the school district that initiated the lawsuit, but the students and the groups their selves that had to sue to get their rather obvious rights recognized. These school boards all have insurance to cover their legal defense any time they are sued, regardless of the basis of the suit, but the insurers leave it to the boards and their attorneys to decide if a suit is going to be settled or defended and the insurers just cut the check based on the policy limits. What the insurance companies need to do on this issue is to put their foot down and say, that if the districts put themselves in the position of being sued over denying the rights of a gay student club, bible study group, or any other student organization which would win under the federal law, you either settle or you pick up the tab for your own foolishness, we're not going to pay.

I agree. That's what would seem the sensible thing to do. They're loosing money, and that makes me wonder if there is some special interest group at work here. If the outcome were so cut and dry. I would think it might have been predicted well ahead of time.

[Rick in Kansas]

Josh in New Orleans wrote:

<quoted text>
I agree. That's what would seem the sensible thing to do. They're loosing money, and that makes me wonder if there is some special interest group at work here. If the outcome were so cut and dry. I would think it might have been predicted well ahead of time.

It's not so much an issue of some sort of special interest at work within the insurance companies, but withi the school boards that cause these suis to be filed in the first place. The districts are covered by a blanket liabilty policy that provides for defense against lawsuits and payment to plaintiffs if any. The only time an insurance company holding the policy would really become involved in any effort to settle, is if there are monetary damages involved and in these cases there are none, or the token $1 plus, assorted attorney's fees. So in cases like that, the insurance companies are pretty much in a position of having to let the scuool board do what it wants in way of defending their policies and cutting a check when they inevitably lose. What would be needed would be a specific exemption to the policy saying that if they're not being sued for any form of monetary damages, the policy won't be covering anyone's attorney's fees if the case is taken to trial. In other words, settle or it is on your dime. Insurance companies are in the business of making money, so what they pay out in loser cases fought by school boards are going to be made up somewhere else, usually in the form of higher premiums for everyone else under the company, so more than likely, it would take outside pressure to get them to change their policies in this regard. Because right now, they really have no interest at stake...