FILE - In this Tuesday, July 21, 2009 file photo, Montana Highway Trooper Michael Walrath inspects the wreckage of a Jeep Cheeroke involved in a crash on Interstate 90 between Belgrade and Manhattan, Mont. On Tuesday, July 14, 2015, attorney Anders Blewett said insurers for the Southern Baptist Convention have agreed to pay $26 million to Jeremy Vangsnes, a South Carolina man who was paralyzed and suffered brain damage in a rollover crash during the missionary trip in Montana. District Judge Mike Salvagni ruled on June 19 that the driver was acting within the course and scope of his association with the mission group at the time of the July 2009 wreck. (Sean Sperry/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP) (The Associated Press)
HELENA, Mont. – Insurers for the Southern Baptist Convention have agreed to pay $26 million to a South Carolina man who has paralyzed and suffered brain damage in a rollover crash during a 2009 missionary trip in Montana.
Attorney Anders Blewett of Great Falls said Tuesday the insurance companies agreed to pay the full coverage limits of their policies within days of a judge's ruling.
District Judge Mike Salvagni found the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention Inc. was liable for the injuries suffered by Jeremy Vangsnes.
Salvagni found the driver, another missionary, was acting within the course and scope of his association with the mission group at the time of the July 2009 crash near Belgrade.
At the time, the 21-year-old Vangsnes was going into his senior year at Coastal Carolina University, where he ran cross country.
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