Day on Torts
A claimant cannot take direct action against an insurance company for the wrongdoing of its insured in Tennessee.
In Johnson v. Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, No. W2024-01791-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Aug. 26, 2025), the decedent was struck by a car. The car’s driver was insured by defendant insurance company.
The insurance company settled the claim with decedent’s family members for $50,000, who executed a release and settlement. Several months later, however, the family members filed this pro se case against the insurance company related to the accident. The trial court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss, ruling that the case was “an improper direct action against an insurance company,” and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
While the plaintiffs raised multiple issues on appeal, the Court wrote that one issue was dispositive of the case. The plaintiffs filed their complaint solely against the defendant insurance company, but the defendant’s only connection to the case was that the driver carried its insurance. The Court wrote:
The law in Tennessee is clear as to whether a claimant may take ‘direct action’ against an insurance company for alleged wrongs of its insured. The answer is no. Tennessee is not a ‘direct action’ state where a plaintiff can sue the liability insurance carrier of the defendant who allegedly caused the harm.
(internal citations omitted). Because this was an attempted direct action against the driver’s insurance company, dismissal was affirmed.
This opinion was released three weeks after oral arguments in this case.