The ruling favors Texas-based National Health Insurance Company, whose policies exclude coverage for expenses resulting from intoxication.

Oliver Bishop IV, 19, of Guilford, Conn., challenged whether the exclusion was enforceable. He incurred $242,235 in medical bills from a 1998 crash due to his drunk driving. He drove his pickup truck into a stone wall and two trees.

"It's an important decision because the ruling reinforces Connecticut public policy against drunken driving," said William H. Clendenen Jr., the attorney for the insurance company.

But the attorney for the plaintiffs said the intoxication exclusion "is hardly ever found in a group health insurance policy."

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