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USA Herald – This is the case of Kinsale Insurance Co. v. Weeping Ridge LLC et al., in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

According to its website, Weeping Ridge is a medical facility/home for children with “medically intensive care needs.”

In this case, an insurer filed a lawsuit against a medical facility and its owners over a dispute involving coverage of an underlying wrongful death lawsuit that was filed by the family of a 16-month-old child, who died at the Weeping Ridge facility in Spokane, Washington.

In March of 2021, the child’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Weeping Ridge, its nurses and aides, Gardner, and the center’s co-owner, Israel Rodriguez, accusing the facility of medical negligence and inadequate staffing.

According to court records from the underlying suit, the staff at Weeping Ridge failed to properly tend to the child’s neuromuscular disorder and severe breathing problems, which caused the child’s death in March 2018.

Issues involving coverage arose and litigation ensued. In counterclaims Gardner (the center’s co-owner) accused Kinsale of gender discrimination under the Washington State Insurance Fair Conduct Act. She accused the insurer of treating her “less favorably” than Rodriguez, her male co-owner.

This week, Kinsale Insurance filed a motion for summary judgment asking the court to toss Gardner’s claim of gender discrimination, saying the accusation amounts to libel.

Kinsale, who is represented by Eric J. Neal, Thomas Lether, and Kasie Kashimoto of  Lether Law Group, told the federal court that “This court should not be persuaded by Gardner’s baseless and libelous allegations regarding gender discrimination and ‘sabotage’”

In their motion, Kinsale wrote “Gardner’s allegations regarding ‘sabotage’ and discrimination are baseless and sound in libel,” adding that it “has never attempted to control her personal counsel’s involvement” in the underlying suit, disputing Gardner’s claim of sabotage.

Kinsale also asked the court to dismiss Gardner’s other counterclaims for bad faith, breach of contract, and violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act.

This matter is currently under submission.