Castellanos v. Travelers Home & Marine Insurance Company

I respectfully dissent to the majority’s opinion in this case because I believe it ignores long-standing principles of Georgia law and the language of the insurance policy at issue to improperly shift the burden to Travelers to prove Castellanos’s claim.

The primary issue raised on appeal is the legal question of whether the insured seeking UM coverage or the UM carrier bears the burden of proving that UM coverage applies in order to survive summary judgment. It is well settled, however, that Castellanos, as the insured, had “the ... burden to prove (1) the existence of a policy of liability…