Opinion ID: 2364737
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Insurance as a Waiver of Immunity

Text: The final steps of the analysis involve liability insurance. Even when public entities have full sovereign immunity, they may waive that immunity through the purchase of insurance, as provided in section 537.610. Similarly, municipalities are specifically granted the power to purchase liability insurance by section 71.185, but, as in section 537.610, the purchase of such insurance may waive immunity. Thus, an analysis of a defendant's immunity requires inquiry into the questions of whether there is insurance and whether the insurance waives immunity under the appropriate statutes. In this case, there is some insurance, and we must determine whether the Board waived immunity by purchasing it. First, section 537.610 permits political subdivisions of the state to purchase insurance and thus waive sovereign immunity. In this case, the Board had purchased a pair of insurance policies with identical coverage; one was a principal policy and the other an umbrella policy. The principal policy includes an endorsement that explicitly disclaims coverage for ANY CLAIM BARRED BY THE DOCTRINES OF SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY OR OFFICIAL IMMUNITY, EXCEPT ATTORNEY'S FEES AND OTHER LITIGATION COSTS INCURRED IN DEFENDING A CLAIM. NOTHING CONTAINED IN THIS POLICY (OR THIS ENDORSEMENT THERETO) SHALL CONSTITUTE ANY WAIVER OF WHATEVER KIND OF THESE DEFENSES OF SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY OR OFFICAL [SIC] IMMUNITY FOR ANY MONETARY AMOUNT WHATSOEVER.  Exhibit E5 to petition for writ of prohibition (emphasis added). The endorsement also provides that it does cover claims that arise out of the two perils specifically described in Section 537.600 R.S.Mo. Id. We recently decided that a similar policy, purchased by a county hospital, did not constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity under section 537.610. See State ex rel. Cass Medical Center v. Mason, 796 S.W.2d 621 (Mo. banc 1990). Nothing in this case offers any reason to treat this policy any differently from the one in Cass Medical. Second, municipalities may purchase insurance and, by doing so, waive the sovereign immunity that protected them in the exercise of governmental functions. § 71.185. This statute predates section 537.610 by several years, and, as under the new section, immunity is waived only to the extent of the insurance purchased. Id. The language of section 71.185 differs from that in section 537.610, but the differences are not material in this case. The endorsement disclaiming coverage of any claim barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity avoids any waiver of sovereign immunity in this suit. The Board did not waive its sovereign immunity. The preliminary writ of prohibition is made absolute. All concur.