Opinion ID: 2328678
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Delaware's Financial Responsibility Laws

Text: Delaware's Financial Responsibility Laws are designed to protect citizens by requiring each driver to carry minimum insurance coverage through a duly certified motor vehicle liability policy issued by an authorized insurance carrier as proof of the financial responsibility of the named insured. [5] The clear purpose of the Financial Responsibility Laws is to provide primary insurance coverage for all personal injury claims arising out of an automobile accident, regardless of the injured person's relationship to the insured. [6] In Seeman, this Court explained that the law admits of no exclusion intended to deny compensation to a portion of the class of victims which the [Financial Responsibility Laws] were designed to protect. [7] But, the Financial Responsibility Laws simply do not apply to the umbrella policy at issue here. The Dapratos maintained a separate motor vehicle liability policy that satisfied the statutory coverage for the class of victims the Financial Responsibility Laws were designed to protect. In fact, the umbrella policy required the Dapratos to maintain that separate, primary policy. The personal liability umbrella coverage purchased by the Dapratos did indeed contain excess automobile liability coverage, but that coverage was a discretionary, contractual matter between them and State Farm. The scope of that coverage was subject neither to the limitations nor to the requirements of the Financial Responsibility Laws. [8] The public policy underlying the Financial Responsibility Laws does not extend to coverage purchased by contract in excess of the full amount of coverage contracted for and purchased in a primary motor vehicle liability policy. State Farm made the Dapratos' motor vehicle liability policy coverage available to Lois Daprato, who was within the class of injured persons the General Assembly and the Seeman holding intended to benefit. These public policy concerns associated with the Dapratos' primary motor vehicle liability policy do not control the permissible coverages and exclusions separately contracted for in the Dapratos' personal liability umbrella policy.