Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/georgia/court-of-appeals/1969/44189.html
Timestamp: 2019-05-24 15:40:17
Document Index: 77067683

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 56', '§ 56', '§ 38', '§ 56', 'art 4', '§ 56']

Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Williams :: 1969 :: Court of Appeals of Georgia Decisions :: Georgia Case Law :: Georgia Law :: US Law :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Georgia Case Law › Court of Appeals of Georgia Decisions › 1969 › Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Williams
Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Williams
119 Ga. App. 414 (1969)
167 S.E.2d 174
*415 Bouhan, Williams & Levy, Walter C. Hartridge, II, for appellant.
Sanders, Hester & Holley, Otis F. Askin, Jack W. Tarver, Jr., F. C. Drexel, for appellees.
*416 QUILLIAN, Judge.
If the quoted provision were not in conflict with the Uninsured Motorist Act the appellant's position would be sound. However, Code § 56-407A as amended provides: "No automobile liability policy or motor vehicle liability policy shall be issued . . . unless it contains an endorsement or provisions undertaking to pay the insured all sums which he shall be legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle, within limits exclusive of interests and costs which shall be no less than ten thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident." Ga. L. 1963, p. 588; 1964, p. 306 (Code Ann. § 56-407.1 (a)). As was stated in State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Barnard, 115 Ga. App. 857, 858 (156 SE2d 148), exclusions in uninsured motorist endorsements cannot "circumvent the clear mandate of the Act by withholding the protection required."
In Bryant v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 205 Va. 897 (140 SE2d 817), the plaintiff was attempting to recover under the terms of two separate uninsured motorists policies. In that case State Farm filed a plea asserting that there was no coverage afforded the plaintiff because its policy contained an *417 "other insurance" clause almost identical to the one in the case sub judice. In discussing the "other insurance" clause in connection with § 38.1-381 (b) of the Virginia Code, which contains language tantamount to that found in Ga. Code § 56-407A, the Virginia court stated: "Section 38.1-381 (b) . . . commands that no policy of bodily injury liability insurance shall be issued or delivered unless it undertakes to pay the insured `all sums' he is legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle within the limits of the policy. That is plain language. It means that every policy shall so undertake. There is no limitation or qualification of this language anywhere in the statute, nothing at all to indicate that it does not mean what it says. But Part 4, Section 6, of the insurance policy issued by State Farm to Bryant, Jr., undertakes to limit and qualify the provision of the statute. It undertakes to pay the insured not `all the sums which he shall be legally entitled to recover as damages,' as the statute commands, but only such sum as exceeds `any other similar insurance available' to him; i.e., the amount by which the applicable limit of the policy `exceeds the sum of the applicable limits of all such other insurance.' Clearly this provision places a limitation upon the requirement of the statute and conflicts with the plain terms of the statute. It is therefore illegal and of no effect." P. 901.
The appellant insists that Code § 56-407A intends to provide a limit of $10,000 for any one person in a collision with an uninsured motorist. With this contention we cannot agree. The insured would be entitled to recover his actual loss that was within the limits of the multiple policies. While the statute does provide a minimum of $10,000 coverage under the uninsured *418 motorists endorsement, it does not limit an insured to recover only that amount when his loss for bodily injury exceeds that sum.