Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ared-2_18-cv-00085/USCOURTS-ared-2_18-cv-00085-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Lashanda Calvin
Plaintiff
Shelter Mutual Insurance Company
Defendant
Jasean Smith
Plaintiff

Document Text:

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

EASTERN DISTRICT OF ARKANSAS 

EASTERN DIVISION 

LASHANDA CAL VIN; and 

JASEAN SMITH 

v. No. 2:18-cv-85-DPM 

SHELTER MUTUAL INSURANCE 

COMPANY 

ORDER 

PLAINTIFFS 

DEFENDANT 

As she was driving slowly in a line of cars on 1-55 between West 

Memphis and Memphis, a never-identified car rear-ended Lashanda 

Calvin's Altima and knocked it into the car in front of her. Calvin's 

twenty-three-year-old son, Jasean Smith, was a passenger in her back 

seat. Calvin and her son were injured. Shelter insures Calvin and her 

car. The company denied Smith's claim. Calvin and Smith filed this 

case seeking $50,000 each in uninsured coverage that may be available 

under the policy. ARK. CODE ANN. § 23-89-403. It's unclear what the 

parties dispute about Calvin's claim. The case was removed here. 

Shelter says there's no coverage for Smith. Calvin and Smith disagree. 

They say the policy is ambiguous, material facts are disputed, and a 

jury could conclude Smith is covered-either as Calvin's relative or as 

Case 2:18-cv-00085-DPM Document 20 Filed 03/14/19 Page 1 of 5
someone who was using the vehicle. The applicable policy terms are in 

the margin.* 

• DEFINITIONS 

Words in bold type that are derived from a defined word have the same root meaning. 

(40) Relative means an individual related to you by blood, marriage, or adoption, who 

is a resident of your household. It includes your child who is away at school, if that 

child is both unmarried and unemancipated .... 

(54) Use means physically controlling, or attempting to physically control, the 

movements of a vehicle. It includes any emergency repairs performed in the course 

of a trip, if those repairs are necessary to the continued use of the vehicle. 

PART IV - COVERAGE E - UNINSURED MOTOR VEHICLE LIABILITY COVERAGE 

INSURING AGREEMENT FOR COVERAGE E 

Subject to all conditions, exclusions, and limitations of our liability, stated in this policy, 

we will pay damages that an insured, or an insured' s legal representative, is legally 

entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle because of 

an occurrence that arose out of the ownership or use of that uninsured motor vehicle. 

DEFINITIONS USED IN COVERAGE E 

(2) Insured means an individual included in one of the following categories: 

CATEGORY A: 

(a) You; 

(b) Relatives; 

(c) Individuals listed in the Declarations as an "additional listed insured" who 

do not own a motor vehicle, and whose spouse does not own a motor vehicle. 

CATEGORYB: 

Any individual who is not included in Category A, while he or she is using the 

described auto with permission or general consent. 

NQ 16-1 at 7, 9-10 & 18. 

-2-

Case 2:18-cv-00085-DPM Document 20 Filed 03/14/19 Page 2 of 5
A son, of course, is related to his mother. But Shelter's policy 

covers only certain relatives. At the threshold, Smith doesn't qualify 

because he doesn't live with Calvin. He moved out in 2013 after 

graduating from high school, almost five years before this 2018 

accident. 

The policy also includes what might be called a student exception: 

It covers an unmarried and unemancipated child away at school. This 

exception doesn't benefit Smith. The Court is not convinced that 

Shelter's policy draws a hard line at age eighteen, the age of majority in 

Arkansas. ARK. CODE ANN.§ 9-25-101; Towery v. Towery, 285 Ark 113, 

114-15, 685 S.W.2d 155, 156 (1985). The policy doesn't define "child," 

and in other places refers to a "minor child," NQ 16-1 at 9, which 

suggests a broader category here. When one speaks of relatives, it's not 

unusual to say an adult is their parents' child. And many young people 

in their late teens and early twenties are away from home much of the 

year, at school of some kind, unmarried, and still dependent on their 

parents in most respects. This student exception covers a child so 

situated. 

This case does not present one of those situations, though. Smith 

is a student; he's studying education at Phillips County Community 

College. He's unmarried. But he's not "unemancipated" within the 

ordinary meaning of that word. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. v. 

Austin, 2011 Ark. 283, at 6,383 S.W.3d 815, 819-20. He works three part-

-3-

Case 2:18-cv-00085-DPM Document 20 Filed 03/14/19 Page 3 of 5
time jobs while attending school. Smith pastors two churches on 

alternating Sundays and assists in funeral services on Saturdays. He 

hasn't lived with his mother for several years. There's no evidence, for 

example, that he has lived with her on and off between college terms. 

And there's no evidence that Calvin was supporting her son financially. 

This record would not support a jury in reasonably concluding that 

Smith was unemancipated. 

Was Smith an insured because he was "using" Calvin's Altima 

while a passenger? Shelter's policy ties use to physical control and 

emergency repairs on trips. Smith wasn't involved in any repair when 

his mother's car was rear ended. "Use means physically controlling, or 

attempting to physically control, the movements of a vehicle." NQ 16-1 

at 10. Smith didn't use Calvin's Altima in this sense; he was buckled 

in the back seat. Calvin and Smith emphasize that this policy defines 

use, not using. That creates some murkiness, they continue, which 

favors their argument for coverage. The Court respectfully disagrees. 

The gerund doesn't create ambiguity. The policy also says "Words in 

bold type that are derived from a defined word have the same root 

meaning." NQ 16-1 at 7. "Using" is in bold; it is derived from the 

d f. d II II e 1ne term use ; and therefore it has the same root meaning: 

physical control. Smith wasn't in control of his mother's car when it 

was rear-ended. Austin, 2011 Ark. at 6,383 S.W.3d at 819-20. 

-4-

Case 2:18-cv-00085-DPM Document 20 Filed 03/14/19 Page 4 of 5
* * * 

Most of the material facts are undisputed. Where some genuine 

dispute exists, the Court has taken the record in the light most favorable 

to Calvin and Smith. Raines v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America, 637 F.3d 

872, 874-75 (8th Cir. 2011). No patent or latent ambiguity exists in the 

applicable policy provisions. The Court has been delayed in addressing 

this motion, and oral argument would cause more delay, so the request 

for it is denied. On this record, and the applicable Arkansas law about 

insurance contracts, Shelter is entitled to partial summary judgment on 

Smith's claims. The motion, NQ 9, is granted and his claim is dismissed 

with prejudice. The Court would appreciate a joint status report on 

Calvin's claim by 15 April 2019. 

So Ordered. 

D.P. Marshall Jr. 

United States District Judge 

-5-

Case 2:18-cv-00085-DPM Document 20 Filed 03/14/19 Page 5 of 5