Insurance Policy Interpretation: The 'Household Exclusion' To the Rescue!
Clennie Murphy, III, et al. v. Government Employees Insurance Company, No. 55, September Term, 2025. Opinion by Gould, J. On August 19, 2021, Mrs. Barbara Alexander Murphy and Mr. Clennie Hughes Murphy, Jr., her husband and passenger, decided to go for a drive. The specific details of this motor vehicle collision are set aside but suffice it to say that Mrs. Murphy was the cause of this motor vehicle collision and Mr. Murphy’s death. Mr. Murphy was survived by Mrs. Murphy and their four adult children, (hereafter ‘the Murphy offspring’), all of whom were adults and none of whom lived in the Murphy household at this point in their respective lives. Thereafter, the Murphy offspring brought a claim on the automobile policy against their own mother under Maryland wrongful death statute codified at Courts & Judicial Proceedings Article § 3-901, et seq. The Murphy motor vehicle, along with Mrs. Murphy, was covered by an ...