Man injured in hunting accident sues insurer.

Byline: Karen McCowan The Register-Guard

Correction (published Oct. 23, 2009): Page A1: The Travelers Insurance Co. filed a preemptory lawsuit against Jesse McLaughlin prior to McLaughlin filing a suit against the insurance company. A subhead misstated the chronology of events Tuesday.

A 22-year-old man paralyzed from the neck down when a hunter accidently shot him in 2007 is suing his parents' auto insurance company.

The lawsuit, filed this month in Lane County Circuit Court, alleges that Jesse McLaughlin is entitled to $750,000 in "underinsured driver" coverage from his parents' Travelers Insurance Co. policy because the hunter fired the shot from inside his - the hunter's - vehicle. It also seeks $1.5 million in non-economic damages for alleged breach of contract and negligence.

McLaughlin was a 20-year-old University of Oregon student at the time of the Oct. 13, 2007, accident, which occurred when he was playing paintball with friends on federal land southwest of Eugene.

Veneta resident Derek Madsen, 29, was convicted of third-degree assault in connection with the accident.

According to the suit filed by Eugene attorney Don Corson, Madsen was driving his Jeep on a public Bureau of Land Management road in rural Lane County when he spotted something in the woods near the road.

While remaining in the vehicle, Madsen "grabbed a rifle that was sitting near the center of the seat and rolled down the window," the suit said.

Unaware that a paintball game was under way nearby, Madsen "apparently believed that he was aiming at a skunk when he negligently fired the rifle from the interior of the sport utility vehicle," the suit alleges.

The bullet struck McLaughlin in the neck, shattering his spine and causing "quadriplegia and respiratory failure" so that he requires the assistance of a ventilator to breathe, the suit claims.

Madsen's auto insurance policy had a $250,000 limit for bodily injury, and his insurer paid that amount to McLaughlin, the suit says.

As a 20-year-old college student, McLaughlin was covered under his parents' Travelers auto policy, which included up to $1 million in coverage for claims arising from accidents caused by underinsured drivers, according to the suit.

Therefore, the suit as-serts, Travelers should have to pay McLaughlin the difference between that $1 million cap and what he received from Madsen's insurer.

Travelers has refused to do so, and in fact has filed a peremptory complaint against Jesse McLaughlin in federal court, his mother said.

"The insurance company is suing my son!" Melissa McLaughlin said, outrage in her voice.

Federal court records show that Travelers filed a complaint against Jesse McLaughlin on Oct. 5 in Portland.

The insurer seeks a court decree that McLaughlin has no valid claim to the underinsured motorist benefit because he "is not an `insured'" under that portion of his parents' policy and because Madsen's liability for damages "did not result from the ownership, maintenance or use of the underinsured vehicle," the Jeep.

Melissa McLaughlin said her son's spinal cord injury forced him to withdraw from the UO, where he was a junior studying business.

She said he now lives at his parents' McMinnville home, and is undergoing therapy that would allow him to return to the classroom.

"He's making good progress" toward that goal, she said. In the meantime, she said, he has continued his studies by taking some online courses.

A spokeswoman for Travelers declined comment on the cases, saying the company does not discuss pending litigation.