Following another reader’s request, this week’s installment of my blog series on Assignment of Benefits (“AOB”) we are exploring the applicability and validity of AOBs in Virginia.
As we have seen in many other states, Virginia follows the guidelines that, an “Insured may assign rights after loss notwithstanding prohibition against assignment of policy.”1 Assignments are permitted by § 8.01–26 of the Code of Virginia, which, “allows assignment of claims for damage to real or personal property.”2
Further, Virginia also allows the holders of the assignments to pursue litigation for all actions that the original claim holder would have been entitled to bring, which would include those of breach of contract and bad faith:
Section 5768 of the Virginia Code of 1936 permits the assignee or beneficial owner of any writing or chose in action to maintain any action in his own name which the original obligee might have brought; and section 5143 provides that, if a promise be made for the benefit of any person with whom it is not made or with whom it is made jointly with others, such person may maintain in his own name any action thereon which he might maintain in case it had been made with him only and the consideration had moved from him to the promisor.3
If you have any specific questions on AOBs or would like to see your state come up sooner, please comment below, or send me an email at cmathis@merlinlawgroup.com.
As always, I’ll leave you with a (mildly) related tune, here’s Virginia’s own Dave Matthews Band with Why I Am:
_______________
1 Watertown Fire Ins. Co. v. Cherry, 84 Va. 72 (1887).
2 Aldrich v. Old Point Nat. Bank, 35 Va. Cir. 545, 1993 WL 13021376 (1993).
3 Glen Falls Ins. Co. of Glen Falls, N.Y. v. Sherritt, 95 F.3d 823, 827 (4th Cir. 1938).
