Senior Judge Howard F. Sachs of the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, granted summary judgment in favor of firm client, American Family Mutual Insurance Company (American Family), in an insurance coverage declaratory judgment suit. In 2019, Joy Alderson filed a class action suit against Lakewood Chiropractic, P.C. (Lakewood) asserting that Lakewood subverted the financial interests of her and other chiropractic patients for its own benefit and profit through unlawful billing practices. American Family filed this declaratory action to determine whether coverage applied in the underlying class action under several commercial business liability insurance policies issued by American Family to Lakewood.

In granting American Family summary judgment, Judge Sachs ordered there was no coverage under the commercial policies and that American Family had no duty to defend or indemnify Lakewood for the claims and damages sought in the class action. Specifically, Judge Sachs ruled that the claims in the class action did not qualify as an “occurrence” and the damages sought did not qualify as “damages” as defined under the commercial policies. Firm partners Christopher Brackman and Derek Johannsen represented American Family and filed the summary judgment on its behalf.