Ohio Supreme Court Gets University Bus Crash Insurance Case

Lawyers clashed this week before Ohio’s Supreme Court on whether a university’s insurers should be liable for a 2007 bus crash that killed seven people, including five student baseball players.

An attorney for the estate of one of the victims argued that families should be allowed to bring claims under Bluffton University’s insurance policies because the northwest Ohio school hired the bus. It plunged off a highway overpass in Atlanta on the way to a tournament.

An attorney for one of the insurance carriers gave an opposing view, arguing that the charter bus company bears sole responsibility. The university had not hired a bus any more than one would hire a taxi for a ride to a hotel, the insurer’s attorney said.

A decision is expected within months.