Case Title: State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Nester

Citation: 459 So. 2d 787

Docket Number: 

State: mississippi

Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Date: 1984-10-31T00:00:00Z

Document:
459 So. 2d 787 (1984) STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY v. James Nester and Mary Nester. No. 54437. Supreme Court of Mississippi. October 31, 1984. Rehearing Denied December 12, 1984. James N. Compton, Carter O. Bise, Bryan, Nelson, Allen, Schroeder & Compton, Biloxi, for appellant. *788 Ben F. Galloway, Owen, Galloway & Dickinson, Gulfport, for appellees. Before ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and DAN M. LEE and ROBERTSON, JJ. DAN M. LEE, Justice, for the Court: This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Harrison County wherein the cause was heard by the circuit judge, sitting without a jury on facts stipulated to by the parties. The circuit court held that appellee, Mary Nester, was entitled to coverage under the uninsured motorists coverage of an insurance policy on her car paid for by her father, appellee James Nester. The court entered a judgment against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. (State Farm) in the amount of $40,000. From the circuit judge's ruling, State Farm brings this appeal and assigns as error: Simplified, the question may be pared down to the following: Whether an insured who is injured while riding as passenger in her own car is entitled to recover from her uninsured motorist coverage where her policy expressly forbids her to make a claim based on liability and the driver of the car is otherwise uninsured? The parties first approach this question by addressing whether Patrick Sullivan, the driver of the car was a permissive user so as to be insured under the policy purchased by Mary Nester's father, James Nester. The determination of this question does not go far in answering the ultimate one. This is because if Sullivan was a permissive user and therefore insured under the policy, as State Farm argues, Mary Nester is still forbidden to make a liability claim against him as a permissive user. If Sullivan was not a permissive user and therefore uninsured, as the Nesters argue, there is also no liability insurance applicable to the accident. Therefore, regardless of whether Sullivan was a permissive user there is still no liability insurance applicable to Mary Nester. If there is any insurance applicable, it must be the uninsured motorist coverage. Under § 83-11-101 Miss. Code Ann. (Supp. 1983) uninsured motorist coverage is required to be offered with all bodily injury liability policies. Because the legislature has directed that our state's motorists be so protected, every automobile liability insurance policy issued after January 1, 1980, has also de jure provided uninsured motorist coverage of at least the statutory minimum, unless the insured expressly rejected that coverage. Any attempt to contractually limit an insurer's duty of coverage is necessarily confined to the boundaries of the statute and may not be effective to narrow the requirements of that statute. The Code defines an uninsured motor vehicle as: § 83-11-103(c) Miss. Code Ann. (Supp. 1983) Numerous decisions of this court have held that the uninsured motorist statute is to be liberally construed so as to provide coverage, and exceptions from coverage are to be strictly construed. Stevens v. United States Fidelity and Guaranty Co., 345 So. 2d 1401 (Miss. 1977); Parker v. Cottonbelt Insurance Co., Inc. 314 So. 2d 342 (Miss. 1975); Lowery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 285 So. 2d 767 (Miss. 1973); Hodges v. Canal Insurance Co., 223 So. 2d 630 (Miss. 1969). In Hodges, supra, this Court held that Hodges' uninsured motorist coverage was applicable where the insurance company of the person with whom she collided refused to pay on the grounds of that person's failure to cooperate. Speaking for the Court, Justice Gillespie wrote that in determining whether uninsured motorist coverage is available, one must view the matter from the perspective of the injured insured. 223 So. 2d at 633, 634. In Harthcock v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 248 So. 2d 456 (Miss. 1971), this Court reaffirmed the principle that the decision as to whether uninsured motorist coverage is available is a matter to be decided from the perspective of the injured insured. In that case, Harthcock was injured while a passenger on a motorcycle being driven by Horne. The accident was caused by Horne's negligence and Harthcock brought suit against Horne. Horne's insurance company denied coverage citing a provision in Horne's insurance policy which excluded bodily injury coverage to any person while "on or getting on *791 or alighting from the insured vehicle." Because there was no bodily injury, liability insurance on the motorcycle available to Harthcock, this court held that she was entitled to recovery from her own uninsured motorist coverage. We also held that a provision in Harthcock's uninsured motorist coverage which forbade her from making any settlement was invalid as against public policy where applied to a tort-feasor other than the uninsured motorist. The Court held: 248 So. 2d at 459. This Court again held an exclusion of uninsured motorist coverage to be void as against public policy in Lowery v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., supra. In that case the policy contained a provision which read: "Owned motor vehicle" was defined by the policy as those motor vehicles described in the policy, temporary substitute automobiles newly acquired automobiles, and certain other automobiles described in the policy. Lowery was injured while riding a Honda motorbike not mentioned in the insurance policy. The Court held that Lowery was "clearly within the terms of the exclusionary provision of the policy." The person with whom Lowery collided was uninsured. The Court again stated the rule that the uninsured motorist statute is to be liberally construed so as to accomplish the purpose of the legislature in attempting to protect the public from the negligence of financially irresponsible drivers. After an extensive discussion of the law in a number of other jurisdictions, this Court held that the exclusionary clause in Lowery's insurance contract violated the public policy of the state as manifested by the Mississippi Uninsured Motorist Act. In Preferred Risk Mutual Insurance Company v. Poole, 411 F. Supp. 429 (N.D. Miss. 1976), Judge Keady followed the dictates of this Court as set forth in Hodges and Harthcock. In Poole, three persons were killed when one of them driving the truck they were riding in lost control of the vehicle as it careened off the road. The three dead travelers were employees of the owner of the truck. One of them was driving and the other two were the only passengers. A cross-employee exclusion, similar to the family exclusion in the instant case, excluded liability coverage to Poole's employees where their injury, sickness, disease or death was the result of another employee's actions arising out of the maintenance or use of the employer's automobile. The Court acknowledged that if considered alone, the cross-employee exclusion would be directly applicable and relieve Preferred Risk of any duty of coverage. Regardless, the Court carefully analyzed the Mississippi Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act and the Uninsured Motorist Vehicle Act, along with decisions of this Court (particularly Hodges and Harthcock) and arrived at the conclusion that the exclusion of coverage made the uninsured motorist provision of the employer's policy applicable. The Court held: 411 F. Supp. at 439. The only reported decision in which this Court has failed to follow the rule announced in Hodges, Harthcock, Lowery and Poole, is Aitken v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 404 So. 2d 1040 (Miss. 1981). In that case Aitken was driving his fiancée's car and she was riding as a passenger. Due to Aitken's negligence, he lost control of the car and caused it to run into a telephone pole. His fiancée, Robin Black, was insured. Ms. Black then married Aitken and sued State Farm to recover damages under both the liability and uninsured motorist provision of the policy. The bulk of the Court's opinion was directed toward the doctrine of interspousal immunity; however, the Court also held that Black's uninsured motorist coverage was not applicable. The Aitken decision failed to cite any of this Court's previous opinions which have held that the statute is to be liberally construed. There is no mention in the opinion of Hodges, Harthcock, Parker or Stevens. Indeed, the opinion gave the uninsured motorist statute a very narrow construction by holding that it covered only injuries caused by "another and separate motor vehicle owned or operated by a person who did not have liability insurance on his automobile or had such coverage in an insurance company that became insolvent or bankrupt." 404 So. 2d at 1043. The Aitken decision is an anamoly in this state's jurisprudence. It rejected a rule of law which has been steadily followed since 1969. Not only did it reject that rule of law but it failed to cite the cases in which that rule is announced and, moreover, it failed to cite authority for the rule it purported to announce. Indeed, the trial court in the instant case held that the Aitken decision was inapplicable because it was primarily founded in the doctrine of interspousal immunity and because "to give the Aitken case the meaning urged by the defendant would overrule a number of long standing precedent without a positive, plain and explicit directive from the Supreme Court and would be in violation of our statutes on uninsured motorist coverage." Commentators on the subject have universally recognized that the humanitarian purpose of the uninsured motorist statute is best served when the applicability of the coverage is viewed from the standpoint of the injured insured: Couch on Insurance, 2nd Ed. § 45:624, p. 35, 36. Couch at § 45:640, p. 160. In referring to exclusion clauses which prohibit family members from recovering *793 under liability coverage and which prevent recovery under the uninsured motorist provision, noted insurance commentator Appleman has written: "It almost resembles Amos and Andy's definition of an insurance policy as a paper where "the big print gives it to you, and the little print takes it away." Insurance Law and Practice by Appleman, § 5080.35. Appleman has also written as follows: Appleman at § 5080. The briefs in this cause have been of great assistance to this Court. We have carefully studied State Farm's legal argument and the decisions from other jurisdictions which support it; however, we do not find those arguments persuasive. The numerous decisions of this Court which require that we view the situation from the perspective of Mary Nester, permit no conclusion other than that Patrick Sullivan was an uninsured motorist and that as such it would be against public policy of our state, as expressed by the legislature, to allow State Farm to exclude Mary Nester from coverage. As the trial court observed, the Aitken decision did not overrule any prior decisions of the Court. It stands alone in the face of those other decisions and is not supported by authority nor binding to the case sub judice. Any language in that opinion contrary to today's decision is mere dictum and is hereby expressly disfavored. Finally there is a point raised by the appellees as to the "stacking" of insurance policies. James Nester had four policies on which he paid premiums. Each of these policies extended uninsured motorist coverage to Mary Nester. The trial court held that each of these policies was applicable and enforceable. State Farm conceded as much during oral argument of this cause. In Government Employees Insurance Company v. Brown, 446 So. 2d 1002 (Miss. 1984), this Court once again reaffirmed the rule that where an insured purchases more than one policy and pays the premiums on more than one policy, that insured is entitled to collect on all such policies. Stacking is therefore permissible in Mississippi and the circuit court committed no error in aggregating the four insurance policies. See also Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Ins. Co. v. Roberts, 323 So. 2d 536 (Miss. 1975). Based on all of the foregoing, we hereby affirm the decision of the circuit court. AFFIRMED. PATTERSON, C.J., ROY NOBLE LEE, P.J., and BOWLING, HAWKINS, PRATHER, ROBERTSON and SULLIVAN, JJ., concur. WALKER, P.J., not participating.