The insurance company for a Colorado cannabis candy company has filed a lawsuit against their client claiming they have no obligation to defend the manufacturer in a separate suit stemming from the case of a Denver man who killed his wife after ingesting one of the company’s products, according to a Courthouse News report.
The case stems from the shooting death of Kristine Kirk by her husband Richard on Apr. 14, 2014, which caught national headlines. Kirk claimed that the “Karma Kandy Orange Ginger,” which contained 101 milligrams of THC, triggered a psychotic episode that led to the killing. He pleaded guilty on Apr. 7 to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Subsequently, through their guardians, his three sons filed a lawsuit against the candy manufacturer, Gaia’s Garden, and the distributor Nutritional Elements, seeking damages for negligence, wrongful death, failure to warn, deceptive trade, breach of implied warranty, strict liability, misrepresentation, and consumer law violations. The lawsuit on behalf of United Specialty Insurance says that the “bodily injury occurred after the distribution and sale of the product…Therefore, it was not a covered hazard under the policy.”
“The policy specifically did not cover, and was not intended to cover, bodily injury arising out of one of Gaia’s products where the injury occurred after Gaia’s had ‘relinquished possession’ of the product — i.e., after the product was sold and distributed,” the complaint argues.
Further, the company says the policy has an endorsement excluding “any bodily injury ‘which would not have occurred, in whole or in part, but for the actual … ingestion of, contact with, exposure to … or presence of psychotropic substances.’”
The United Specialty lawsuit is believed to be the first of its kind in the recreational cannabis industry. Nutritional Elements already settled out of court.urtis