News 586 Pennsylvania Home Insurance Company Responsible Liability Damages Shooting Deaths Pa

Donnegal Mutual Insurance, a home insurance company in PA, will have to pay a total of $1.8 million in restitution to the five families of the victims of a shooting spree as well as the only survivor. The Baumhammers family of Mount Lebanon, PA held a policy with Donnegal Mutual which covered the Baumhammers plus any relative who was a resident of their household for liability damages.

Richard Baumhammers, 40, was living in his parents home when on April 28, 2000, he fatally shot five people and wounded another. The victims were all targeted because of their race or religious beliefs and include a Jewish woman, two asian men, two Indian men and a black man. Baumhammers was convicted and is now on death row.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled that Baumhammers' parents acted negligently in not confiscating their son's gun or alerting mental health authorities to his dangerous tendencies. The stated that their negligence inevitably led to the six shootings and that since Donnegal Mutual covers liability damages in the family's homeowners insurance policy, they are responsible for paying $300,000 to each of the victims or their survivors. The ruling is a reversal on an appeal of a decision that originally classified all six shootings as one single occurrence which would have forced the victim and survivors to split any settlement.

Read more: Pa. Court Rules Parents' Homeowners Policy Covers Shootings by Son (Insurance Journal) An insurance company might have to pay $1.8 million if the lone survivor and relatives of five other victims of a shooting spree win lawsuits against the attacker's parents, the Pennsylvania Superior