Auto Insurance Claims: Denied due to medical emergency?, seizure and auto accident

Question
Last month my husband was hit in a rental car by a man on the North Dallas Toll way who apparently went into a seizure.  State Farm is not paying the claim nor medical expenses for my husbands injuries claiming we have some sort of No Fault Medical Emergency Law here in Texas. We have now received a letter from Enterprise Rental stating that they have filed on my insurance and that I need to send them my deductible immediately. I have looked online to see if I can find anything on this law and haven't been able to. Is this legit? Are we really going to be the responsible party in this accident even though the police report and witness agree that my husband is not at fault?

Thank you for your time.

Answer
Lu,

  I'm not sure how I missed this question, but I did, so I'm sorry for the delayed response.  Your situation is more complicated than you think.  I can say with certainty that you are liable to the rental car company by contract, because Enterprise contract are written that way.  It makes no difference who was at fault in the accident because the contract you signed when you rented the vehicle said that you would be responsible for damages caused to the vehicle while you had it rented.  Does that make sense?  Your insurance will be forced to pay Enterprise and then your insurance can try and get paid back by the party that went into a seizure.  


  I'm not aware of any No Fault Medical Emergency law in Texas.  In fact, seizures are specifically addressed in the instance of epilepsy in many states and having a seizure does not relieve one of liability.  There can be an argument made about negligence if the emergency was truly a surprise.  Most of the time, people who have a seizure know of their risk for seizures, and knowing of the risk means you have to take measures to make sure the risk is controlled so you don't put others in harms way.  I hope this helps.

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