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Court reverses $20M ruling against assisted living insurer - Business Insurance Skip to content Register for free Search Search Log In Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Court reverses $20M ruling against assisted living insurer by Richard Sine Coverage Disputes , Risk Management Aug 6, 2026 An assisted-living specialty insurer has won a reversal of a $20 million judgment tied to the 2012 death of an elderly assisted living resident, after Florida’s First District Court of Appeal found the insurer’s policy was never triggered because no formal claim was made while the policy was in effect. The ruling, National Assisted Living Risk Retention Group v. Henry Walton Bishop, III , was issued Wednesday by Judge Lori S. Rowe, with Chief Judge Timothy D. Osterhaus and Judge Rachel Nordby concurring. The underlying case traces back to July 2012, when Henry Walton Bishop Jr., an 87-year-old resident of a Florida-based facility operated by J&S Assisted Living and Consultant, wandered away unsupervised and was struck and killed by a logging truck. Bishop’s estate later won a $20 million wrongful death judgment against J&S after a 2018 bench trial. When J&S couldn’t pay, the estate obtained an assignment of J&S’s rights under its 2012 policy with Norcross, Georgia-based National Assisted Living Risk Retention Group, known as NALRRG, and sued the insurer directly for breach of contract, ultimately winning at trial. NALRRG appealed, arguing the trial court wrongly found that a claim had been made under the 2012 policy. The appellate court agreed, reversing the judgment. Because the estate’s wrongful death lawsuit wasn’t filed until 2014, long after the 2012 policy had expired, no qualifying claim was made during the coverage period, the panel found. In a 2012 call, the assisted living facility’s manager called the insurance agency to report the death and mentioned that several agencies were investigating and “at least one had inquired whether J&S maintained the required coverage in accordance with Florida law.” The trial court concluded that this constituted a claim, but the appeals court said it only constituted “notice of an injury or occurrence that might lead to a claim.” “The trial court also concluded in the alternative that the investigating agencies’ demand for proof of insurance coverage from J&S in November 2012 amounted to a claim ‘on behalf of the injured person’ under the PL policy,” the judge said. “This was error. The agency investigations into Bishop’s death do not qualify as a “claim” or “suit” because they were not initiated on behalf of Bishop or his Estate.” “Instead, there was no claim — a suit or demand for monetary damages — made on behalf of the injured person until 2014, when the Estate filed a wrongful death suit against J&S,” the court found. 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