Expert: John Varghese - 11/15/2010

Question
John, a company in California provides group health insurance as an additional ammenity to members.  I am fairly certain they are not considered an agent or broker but just an inter-mediary.  Having strong evidence they were negligent and breached their fiduciary duty, would you entangle the insurance company in this scenerio?  I can give you more detailed issues supporting the links why I believe they also should be brought into the suit.

Answer
Dear David,

Well so long as the group health insurance is a product of the insurance company, the relationship between the intermediary and the insurance company would be that of an agent and principal only, by what ever name you call it. So I feel the insurance company will be a necessary party to any litigation you start. It is of course another aspect that during the litigation, the insurance company can plead that the entire fault is on the intermediary and avoid liability.

Regards

John Varghese