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Tennessee justices hear dispute over prejudgment interest against uninsured-motorist carrier
Summary
At oral argument, lawyers and an amicus urged the Tennessee Supreme Court to decide whether prejudgment interest may be awarded as damages against an uninsured/underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) carrier under the 1979 prejudgment-interest statute, or whether longstanding precedent barring such interest in personal-injury cases controls.
The Tennessee Supreme Court heard oral argument over whether prejudgment interest can be awarded against an uninsured- or underinsured-motorist insurer that is joined in a tort suit under the state statutory scheme.
Counsel for Auto-Owners Insurance argued the court should decline the plaintiff's invitation to treat UM/UIM carriers differently from underlying tortfeasors, saying such a rule would create two classes of plaintiffs and conflict with the statute as interpreted in Wallace. "That simply doesn't make sense," counsel Connor Dugan told the court, illustrating with a hypothetical in which a tortfeasor with insurance would be treated differently than a plaintiff who recovers from an insurer that steps in under the UM/UIM statute.
The dispute centers on the 1979 codification of prejudgment interest and its interplay with the…
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