The Tennessee Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Artist Building Partners v. Auto Owners Mut. Ins. Co. serves as an important reminder in coverage disputes that any ambiguities will be strictly construed against the insurance company and in favor of coverage. Tennessee courts have made clear over and over again that any language in an insurance policy is ambiguous if it is susceptible of more than one reasonable interpretation. Going even further, our courts have held that if a disputed provision has more than one plausible meaning, the meaning favorable to the insured control. The Artist Building Partners case reaffirmed these long-standing principles, and I am not at all surprised at the Court’s holding.

It was particularly nice to see the Court cite back to a 1996 Tennessee Supreme Court case that noted that “an insured should not have to consult a long line of case law or law review articles and treatises to determine the coverage he or she is purchasing under an insurance policy.” The issue really boils down to one of reasonableness. Is the insured’s interpretation reasonable and sensible? If so, the insured will (or at least should) win every single time.