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Not long ago, there was a flurry of media coverage of conservative federal Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III and his opinion discussing how a judge should address the current clash between the Executive and Judicial branches. That opinion was generally considered quite important on a grand scale, testing deep constitutional doctrines and balancing varied but powerful interests.

Less than a week later, as if in response to the media tsunami, Judge Wilkinson wrote another epic statement at the conclusion of a case that will likely not garner media clicks but, for its participants, is just as weighty and deserves the Court’s “best.” On April 23, 2025, Judge Wilkinson wrote the unanimous opinion in a 4th Circuit case concerning insurance coverage for a fatal lawnmower accident. At the end of Owners Insurance Co. v. Walsh, Judge Wilkinson explained:

The lawn mower involved in the accident was not an insured vehicle. Upon receiving the estate’s claim, Owners still tendered $150,000 in single-vehicle UIM benefits from Walsh’s personal policy. This is the extent of coverage owed under the plain terms of the policy Walsh purchased, and that is the coverage Owners paid.

What after all does it matter? A single, seemingly ordinary, rather technical insurance case. One among the many hundreds of rulings judges make each year.

What does it matter? A case but a speck in the recesses of interstellar space and in the four-plus billion years since our solar system’s birth. What does it matter, this case deserted by both space and time? To be human is to live in the here and now. This small case extracts courageous meaning from the vast impersonality in which it resides. Its immediacy confounds infinity; its passions light the dark. We have given it our best; the litigants have given it their best. The trial court has done the same. We do not overlook for a moment the tragic passing of the insured but neither can we ignore the contract under South Carolina law that defines the insurer’s obligation. The judgment of the district court is accordingly affirmed, and this single case in all its smallness now reigns important and supreme.

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