Southern Oil Refinery and its insurer, Employers Mutual Casualty, represented by Matthew Friedlander of Webb Daniel Friedlander and Philip Savrin of Freeman Mathis & Gary, appealed a $5.9 million judgment out of northwest Georgia resulting from a three-fatality car crash in at oral argument on Tuesday.

Southern Oil asked the Georgia Court of Appeals to reconsider the trial court’s award, arguing that it failed to account for the jury’s apportionment of fault to a group of defendants that settled before the case went to trial. The court also apportioned $1.9 million to Employers Mutual Causality that the insurer now appeals, arguing the sum is comprised of the proceeds of an excess policy that wasn’t placed in evidence and only a primary policy can be attached under Georgia’s direct action statute.

Matthew Friedlander of Webb Daniel Friedlander. Courtesy photo Matthew Friedlander of Webb Daniel Friedlander. (Courtesy photo)