Opinion ID: 1570678
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Plaintiffs' Temporal Argument.

Text: Plaintiffs' second argument is that it was error for the district court to phrase its interrogatory to the jury so as to only determine Vaknin's status as an operator at the time of the accident. They urge that the court should have allowed Vaknin's status as an operator of the vehicle at an earlier time to trigger uninsured-motorist coverage under the American Family policy. For this reason, plaintiffs assert that interrogatory No. 4 should not have read was Yaacov Vaknin the operator of an uninsured motor vehicle at the time of the accident? But rather, was Yaacov Vaknin the operator of an uninsured motor vehicle at the time of his negligence? We are satisfied that the district court correctly determined that the type of uninsured liability that triggers application of American Family's coverage is operational fault causing the injury for which recovery of uninsured-motorist benefits is claimed. See Elgar, 849 A.2d at 326 (uninsured-motorist coverage requires that insured present credible evidence that his or her injury was caused by the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle). That being the case, it was logical for the trial court to fix the time for the jury's determination of operator status as the time of the accident.