Opinion ID: 2519881
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: price's fraud toward progressive reduced her liability coverage under the insurance policy to the minimum statutory limits

Text: ¶ 13 As an insured person under the policy, Price indisputably made fraudulent misrepresentations to Progressive. Indeed, the district court found, and the parties in this appeal do not contest, that in submitting her claim to Progressive, Price falsely stated that Davis was driving at the time of the accident. Based on this fraud, Progressive contends that the insurance policy allows it to reduce liability limits to the minimum statutory limits and that the district court erred in concluding otherwise. Specifically, it argues that the step-down provision allowing it to reduce liability coverage to the minimum statutory limits in the event of fraud by an insured person was properly incorporated into the policy and should be enforced. [4] We agree. ¶ 14 Section 31A-21-106(1)(a) of the Utah Code states that an insurance policy may not contain any agreement or incorporate any provision not fully set forth in the policy or in an application or other document attached to and made a part of the policy at the time of its delivery, unless the policy, application, or agreement accurately reflects the terms of the incorporated agreement, provision, or attached document. Utah Code Ann. § 31A-21-106(1)(a) (2001). In addition, we have held that a mere reference to statutory limits, without fully setting forth those limits in the contract or an attached document, violates the plain language and purpose of section 31A-21-106. Cullum v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 857 P.2d 922, 925 (Utah 1993). Relying on this legal authority, the district court held that Progressive improperly incorporated coverage limits by reference. In so doing, however, the district court apparently overlooked a section in the insurance policy, a copy of which was submitted to the court in Progressive's summary judgment motion, that explicitly defines minimum statutory limits. [5] Indeed, the plain language of that policy defines the phrase minimum statutory limits in elaborate detail: [T]he minimum policy limits for motor vehicle liability coverage required by the law of the State of Utah ... are as follows: a. $25,000 because of liability for bodily injury to one ... person arising out of the use of a motor vehicle in any one ... accident. b. subject to the limit for one . . . person in a above, $50,000 because of liability for bodily injury to two ... or more persons arising out of the use of a motor vehicle in any one . . . accident; and c. $15,000 because of liability for property damage arising out of the use of a motor vehicle in any one ... accident; or d. $65,000 because of liability for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the use of a motor vehicle in any one ... accident. We thus conclude that the policy's step-down provision was properly incorporated into the insurance policy at issue and that Progressive's potential liability is therefore reduced to the minimum statutory limits.