Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca11-14-10266/USCOURTS-ca11-14-10266-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
FCCI Insurance Company
Appellant
Mclendon Enterprises, Inc.
Appellee
Brooks Lamar Mitchell
Appellee

Document Text:

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________

No. 14-10266

Non-Argument Calendar

________________________

D.C. Docket No. 4:12-cv-00191-BAE-GRS

FCCI INSURANCE COMPANY,

Plaintiff - Appellant,

versus

MCLENDON ENTERPRISES, INC.,

BROOKS LAMAR MITCHELL,

Defendants - Appellees.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Georgia

________________________

(July 27, 2015)

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Before TJOFLAT, JORDAN and BLACK, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

This case arises from an automobile collision between a vehicle driven by 

Brooks Lamar Mitchell in his capacity as an employee of McLendon Enterprises, 

Inc. (McLendon), and an Evans County school bus. The district court, applying 

Georgia law, determined that Mitchell could recover under McLendon’s policy 

with FCCI Insurance Co., which promised to pay sums he was “legally entitled to 

recover” from an uninsured motorist. The district court found that Mitchell could 

make a claim under this provision even though Evans County’s partial sovereign 

immunity prevented Mitchell from establishing in a lawsuit that he was legally 

entitled to recover the full amount of his damages from Evans County. 

In the first panel decision in this case, we certified the following question to 

the Georgia Supreme Court:

Can an insured party recover under an uninsured-motorist insurance 

policy providing that the insurer will pay sums “the insured is legally 

entitled to recover as compensatory damages from the owner or driver 

of an uninsured motor vehicle” despite the partial sovereign immunity 

of the tortfeastor?

FCCI Ins. Co. v. McLendon Enters., Inc., 573 F. App’x 919, 921 (11th Cir. 2014).

The Georgia Supreme Court answered the question in the affirmative. FCCI 

Ins. Co. v. McLendon Enters., Inc., __ S.E.2d __, 2015 WL 2166731 (Ga. May 11, 

2015). Given the Georgia Supreme Court’s resolution of the certified issue, the 

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district court did not err in determining Mitchell could recover under McLendon’s 

uninsured-motorist coverage despite Evans County’s partial sovereign immunity 

and Mitchell’s inability to establish its full liability to him. Accordingly, we affirm 

the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Mitchell.

AFFIRMED.

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