Opinion ID: 1617265
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: what this case means

Text: Recently, in Thompson v. Mississippi Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co., 602 So.2d 855 (Miss. 1992), in determining residency of a minor child, we used the words residency and domicile interchangeably, and held, as a matter of law, that a child is the legal resident of the custodial parent's household. We held that a child being transported by her mother to permanently live with her father was not residing in his household under the mother's liability policy. We had no difficulty with residency in that case, nor did we in Goens. Residence means living there on some sort of regular, settled, anticipatory basis, something beyond temporary or transitory. It is that simple. Black's Law Dictionary 1117, p. 666 (5th Ed. 1979). [19] Fleming told us to look to the purpose of the insurance contract. One may assume that the purpose of the statute was to insure the named insured and members of his family living under the same roof full time. Or, when liberally construed, at least part of the time on a settled, anticipatory basis when a child could regularly be expected to put his or her feet under the dining table, sleep in a designated bed on a weekly (or at least monthly) basis, and had his or her personal belongings in a certain designated place. And, there was something about his or her presence that made the child a member of the family while there. This, at the most, is what the insurance company can be expected to insure under the statutory rubric resident of the same household. Outside or beyond this, it stretches credulity, smacks of fraud, to pretend the child lived or resided there. The majority would have us think with uninsured motorist coverage, as with liability coverage, one risks penalty if one does not take it out. That is not so. Compare Miss. Code Ann. § 83-11-101(2) with Miss. Code Ann. § 63-15-69. Uninsured motorist coverage is purely elective on the part of the insured. There is no penalty if the custodial parent chooses not to carry it, and I suspect that once this opinion becomes public, many will choose not to. If a non-custodial parent wants to secure uninsured motorist coverage for a child who does not reside in his home  a child whom, as in this case, it assaults the intelligence to claim he did  then he should pay for it, not all the rest of us. I resent being required to take on part of this burden in paying my premium for uninsured motorist coverage. I resent being required to pay, in my uninsured motorist premium, for even non-custodial parents whose children are strangers to them. In fact, I may not be able to afford it. The majority's egalitarianism converts liability into health and accident insurance. If a person is hurt or killed, either the facts are adjusted or we find the words of the policy take on a peculiar malleability to reach the liability grail. Look no further: if the claimant is hurt or killed, he or his estate is covered. And we expect premiums to remain at liability insurance level? I know absolutely nothing about the insurance business, but I would suppose these companies want to draw into some kind of recognizable frame who they are insuring. Otherwise, how can they gauge premiums to charge? The majority removes all boundaries. Junior was clearly Mama's boy. On May 30, 1987, he had no intention of living anywhere but home with Mama at 59 Bennett Drive. It was from Mama that he sought approval, and Mama who he sought each day to report to and relieve from worry. His trip to Daddy's was to solicit money. This is not a case of Junior's estate being deprived of uninsured motorist coverage, because it has it under Mrs. Williams' policy. It is a case of a bogus tacking of his father's policy as well. Junior could also have had all kinds of uninsured motorist coverage for his own car, had his father seen fit to provide it, or Junior to take it out himself. Williams elected, instead, to give his son an old car, turn him loose in it without any liability insurance to protect the public, and let his son run the risk of losing his driver's license if he had an accident with another vehicle. Miss. Code Ann. § 63-15-11 (1972). This is a case of giving added uninsured motorist coverage to someone who made no attempt to do so on his own and, if Williams had wanted Junior to have uninsured motorist coverage under his own policy with Aetna, he should have added him as a named insured and paid for it himself. The chancellor noted that Mrs. Williams was uncooperative with Williams. I would not so characterize her conduct; but, rather, say it was that of a highly-principled lady who declined to engage in dishonest conduct, even though it was going to cost her and her children several thousand dollars. She knew Junior did not live and never had lived with his father, and she refused to participate in a false claim. It was that simple. She was that honorable. We live and learn, Mrs. Williams. I respectfully dissent. PRATHER, P.J., and PITTMAN, J., join this dissent.