A federal appeals court ruling upheld a lower court judgment denying a mortality insurance claim following the untimely death of stallion Laoban.
Cypress Creek Equine filed the claim in 2021 with North American Specialty Insurance after Laoban had an allergic reaction to a so-called "black shot" concoction he was given to increase his interest in breeding and almost immediately died from anaphylactic shock.
A lawsuit was filed after NAS denied the claim. Federal district Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove decided Laoban's cause of death was caused by actions that voided policy coverage as a matter of law, citing a policy provision excluding coverage from losses caused by “administration of drugs or medication ... unless done by or under the direction of a veterinarian and certified by him/her to have been of a preventative nature or necessitated by accident, sickness or disease of the horse.
In the end, the legal case largely hinged on Cypress Creek's argument the shot should not trigger the exclusion of coverage because it was not a "drug" or a "medication."
"Cypress Creek’s contrary arguments are—in a word—unconvincing," wrote United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge John B. Nalbandian for a unanimous three-judge panel Aug. 20. "Because the ordinary meaning of 'drugs or medicine' applies to the injection Wharton gave Laoban, NAS appropriately denied coverage under the Unauthorized Medication Exclusion."
