Today, we begin a seven-post series, reviewing how each Justice has voted in insurer cases overall. First up is the Court’s senior Justice, Justice Rita Garman.
In our first table, we report Justice Garman’s votes for and against insurer parties in civil insurance law cases. Since 2001, Justice Garman has voted for insurers in twenty-three cases while voting against insurers twenty-one times. Justice Garman voted for insurers in only one of four cases in 2001 and one of three in 2003 and 2004. She voted for insurer parties in eleven of sixteen cases from 2005 to 2008. There were no insurance law cases in 2014, 2016 or 2017. Justice Garman has voted for insurer parties in only one of three cases in 2018 and 2019.
Below, we report Justice Garman’s votes for insurer parties who won at the Appellate Court. Overall, Justice Garman has voted for such parties half the time – nine of eighteen cases. Insurers won Justice Garman’s vote in only two of six such cases from 2001 to 2005. She voted for insurers seven of eight times from 2006 to 2008. She has voted against insurers’ position in such cases in all four insurer wins decided by the Supreme Court since 2009.
Since 2001, Justice Garman has voted to reverse in fourteen cases where the insurer lost below, while voting to affirm twelve times. Justice Garman voted to reverse in nine of fifteen cases lost by insurers below between 2005 and 2013. Since that time, there have only been six such cases, and Justice Garman has split her votes 3-3.
Join us back here next Tuesday as we examine the voting records in these cases of two more Justices.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Roger W (no changes).