Opinion ID: 1192439
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Heading: oklahoma uninsured motorist coverage law

Text: Oklahoma law gives you the right to buy Uninsured Motorist coverage in the same amount as your bodily injury liability coverage. THE LAW REQUIRES US TO ADVISE YOU OF THIS VALUABLE RIGHT FOR THE PROTECTION OF YOU, MEMBERS OF YOUR FAMILY, AND OTHER PEOPLE WHO MAY BE HURT WHILE RIDING IN YOUR INSURED VEHICLE. YOU SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER BUYING THIS COVERAGE IN THE SAME AMOUNT AS YOUR LIABILITY INSURANCE COVERAGE LIMIT.... THE COST OF THIS COVERAGE IS SMALL COMPARED WITH THE BENEFITS! 36 O.S.Supp.1990 § 3636(H) (emphasis in original). Plaintiffs assert that the language in subsection (H) which urges insureds to purchase UM coverage in the same amount as their liability coverage indicates a change in the legislative intent ascribed to § 3636 by our pre-1990 cases. We disagree. The fundamental rule of statutory construction is to ascertain and, if possible, give effect to the intention and purpose of the Legislature as expressed in a statute. Ledbetter v. Oklahoma Alcoholic Bev. Laws Enforcement Comm'n, 764 P.2d 172, 179 (Okla.1988). In so doing, relevant provisions must be considered together, where possible, to give force and effect to each other. Id. Upon review of § 3636 in its entirety, we do not believe that the addition of subsection 3636(H) signified a change in the legislative intent previously ascribed to the statute. The 1990 amendments did not alter in any significant respect the basic components of the statute as outlined above. The statute continues to require that every liability insurance policy contain a provision for UM coverage, that UM coverage be offered in amounts between the statutory minimum and the liability limits of the policy, and that the insured has the right to reject UM coverage in writing. We deduce that the newly enacted subsection (H) was created to accomplish two objectives. Primarily, subsection (H) mandates that a standardized written form shall be used by every insurer in connection with an offer of UM coverage. The particular form to be used is included in the provision. This legislative mandate appears to have been an appropriate response to the multitude of Oklahoma cases that addressed, under a pre-1990 version of § 3636, insurers' failure to offer UM coverage or obtain written rejection thereof. [5] Subsection (H) also has the objective of encouraging insureds, via the mandatory form, to purchase UM coverage in the same amount as their bodily injury liability limits. In short, the amendment mandates the use of a standardized form and encourages the purchase of maximum UM coverage. Encouragement and mandate are two entirely different things. Neither the pre-1990 nor amended versions of § 3636 dictate the result plaintiffs seek here. In his separate opinion in State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Wendt, 708 P.2d 581 (Okla. 1985), Justice Opala described the purpose of § 3636 as it existed in 1981. We believe that his interpretation applies with equal force to the version of § 3636 in effect today: The UM statute does indeed contemplate that insureds may need additional coverage. This is doubtless why insurance companies are required to offer increased limits of liability.... If no UM coverage at all is desired, named insureds have the right to reject it in writing. UM protection is, then, only conditionally mandated. Its effectiveness as a public benefit measure is initially controlled by actions of the named insured of the policy. While the general public is shielded against financially irresponsible motorists by the public liability coverage that is mandated by the Financial Responsibility Act [47 O.S. § 7-204], the UM statute is designed to compel insurers to provide protection only for that insured who wishes not to reject the minimum protection against loss occasioned by an uninsured motorist. In short, the former act commands vehicle owners to maintain public liability protection, while the latter act  a mandate to insurers  directs that, absent the insured's written rejection, an automobile policy must include minimum UM coverage. The lone, though doubtless the most revealing, nexus between the two enactments is found in the mention made in § 3636(B) of the minimum amount of liability coverage that is mandated by the financial responsibility law. This reference plainly demonstrates a legislative intent to confine the public policy mandate for the statutory UM coverage level to no more than the minimum amount of insurance prescribed by law for public liability protection. Wendt, 708 P.2d at 588 (Opala, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) (emphasis in original, footnotes omitted). An insurance coverage contract required by § 3636 must be liberally construed in favor of the object to be accomplished. State Farm Auto. Ins. Co. v. Greer, 777 P.2d 941, 942 (Okla.1989). However, once it appears that the legislative purpose of § 3636 has been served, the statute's mandate is satisfied. Moser v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 731 P.2d 406, 409 (Okla.1986). See also Equity Mut. Ins. Co. v. Spring Valley Wholesale Nursery, Inc., 747 P.2d 947, 953 (Okla. 1987). Consequently, freedom-of-contract principles control as to any vehicle coverage in excess of that required by statute.  Equity Mut., 747 P.2d at 953 (footnote omitted, emphasis in original). As previously stated, the legislative intent underlying § 3636 is that every automobile liability insurance policy issued in this state have a statutory minimum of uninsured motorist coverage unless that minimum amount is rejected in writing. That objective was not altered by the 1990 amendments to the statute. Where an insurer fails to offer in writing or obtain a written rejection of UM coverage such that UM coverage is imputed to an insured's policy as a matter of law, we hold that the mandate of § 3636 is satisfied by imputation of the minimum limits of UM coverage required by statute. To impute a higher amount of UM coverage would go beyond the mandate of § 3636. In Perkins v. Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co., 889 P.2d 1262 (Okla.App.1994), the only other Oklahoma decision to have addressed this issue, the court reached a contrary result. There, the insureds' automobile insurance policy provided for $100,000.00 per person in liability coverage and $15,000.00 per person in UM coverage. When a third vehicle was added to the policy, thereby creating a new policy, the insurer failed to inform the insureds of their UM coverage options as required by § 3636. The Court of Appeals correctly noted that courts have a duty to supply, by appropriate pronouncement, whatever procedure may be necessary in order to implement a legislatively-designed remedy that is found procedurally incomplete or deficient. Id. at 1262-63, citing Farris v. Cannon, 649 P.2d 529, 531 (Okla.1982), and Moral Ins. Co. v. Cooksey, 285 P.2d 223, 227 (Okla.1955). The court then summarily concluded that the insurer's failure to reoffer UM coverage resulted in imputation of such coverage in an amount equal to the policy's liability limits, $100,000.00. The chief problem with the court's rationale in Perkins is that § 3636 contains a legislatively created mandate for insurers to use a standardized UM coverage offer form; it does not contain a legislatively-designed remedy. As we noted at the outset of this opinion, § 3636 has never prescribed the amount of UM coverage to be imputed to a policy when an insurer fails to satisfy the statute's requirements. The remedy of imputing UM coverage to an insurance policy where an insurer has transgressed § 3636 was judicially crafted in an effort to fulfill legislative intent. The Perkins court never considered legislative intent or the purpose underlying § 3636. For the reasons stated above, we find that the result reached in Perkins goes beyond the legislative mandate of § 3636. Therefore, to the extent that it conflicts with this opinion, Perkins is expressly overruled. In the present case National Union, in violation of § 3636, failed to offer or secure a written rejection of UM coverage after National Gypsum effectuated a material change in its insurance policy. Thus, UM coverage was imputed to the policy as a matter of law. The amount of the imputed coverage is dictated by 36 O.S.Supp.1990 § 3636(B) and 47 O.S.1991 § 7-204(a) and equals the statutory minimum of UM coverage prescribed by law for public liability protection: $10,000.00 per person and $20,000.00 per accident. CERTIFIED QUESTION ANSWERED. LAVENDER, SIMMS, HARGRAVE, OPALA and SUMMERS, JJ., concur. HODGES, J., concurs in result. KAUGER, V.C.J., concurs in part, dissents in part. ALMA WILSON, C.J., dissents.