The state Supreme Court has agreed to hear argument in the case of two police officers who claimed they were subject to an insurance fraud scheme aimed at denying uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits.

The court granted allocatur in Egan v. USI Mid-Atlantic on Jan. 21, nine months after a three-judge Superior Court panel upheld a Philadelphia court's decision granting a new trial solely on the issue of punitive damages against the defendants. A Philadelphia jury originally awarded $500,000 to Bristol Township, Bucks County, police officers Michael Egan Jr. and Mark Buzby.

Egan and Buzby had alleged the township's insurance broker and the township's former manager sought to defraud them of uninsured and underinsured motorist benefits by backdating a waiver of the UM/UIM coverage prior to an Aug. 27, 2005, accident that left one of the officers with an amputated leg.