Michael F. Schmidt Wins Worker’s Compensation Insurance Dispute

AM Polis, Inc. and Polis Audish v Jeffrey H. Kaplan Agency, Inc. and Amanda M. Stephen, Wayne County Circuit Court, claim by the plaintiff and the plaintiff’s corporation for workers’ compensation insurance.  Plaintiffs alleged that they applied for and requested a policy of workers’ compensation insurance from the defendant insurance agency.  They further argued that they cancelled existing coverage in reliance upon obtaining such coverage.  Following discovery we moved for summary disposition on the basis that the defendants were direct agents of Nationwide, that none of the exceptions to the general rule of no liability as set forth by the Supreme Court decision in Hartes v Farmers Insurance Exchange, 461 Mich 1 (1999) applied, that the plaintiff had a duty to read his policy and raise any questions regarding coverage within a reasonable time, that discovery disclosed that the plaintiff did not cancel any other coverage in reliance on the Nationwide policy and that the plaintiff never requested workers’ compensation coverage.  The court granted our motion for summary disposition dismissing the plaintiffs’ complaint with prejudice.