Opinion ID: 1957318
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Mississippi Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Law

Text: ¶ 14. The Mississippi Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Law requires every auto liability insurance policy to provide to the insured all sums which he shall be entitled to recover as damages for bodily injury or death from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle. Miss.Code Ann. § 83-11-101(1). This coverage is mandatory, unless expressly declined in writing. Id. The Act also affords protection against underinsured motorists, defining an underinsured vehicle as one in which the liability insurer of such vehicle has provided limits of bodily injury liability for its insured which are less than the limits applicable to the injured person provided under his uninsured motorists coverage. Miss.Code Ann. § 83-11-103(c)(iii). Therefore, [d]etermining that a tortfeasor is underinsured within the meaning of the statute is more complicated than determining that a tortfeasor is uninsured because she has no insurance at all. A determination that an insured is underinsured requires a limits-to-limits comparison. The amount of the tortfeasor's liability insurance is compared to the amount of uninsured motorist coverage available to the injured insured. In order to compare a tortfeasor's liability coverage limits to the [uninsured motorist] limits applicable to an insured, it is necessary in Mississippi to aggregate or stack all [uninsured motorist] coverage limits applicable to the [injured] insured. Jeffrey Jackson, Mississippi Insurance Law & Practice 17-33 to 34 (2001). In other words, if the injured insured's uninsured motorist policies stack (that is, add up) to an aggregate dollar amount which exceeds the amount of automobile liability coverage available to the tortfeasor, underinsured motorist coverage is available to the injured insured. ¶ 15. The right to stack is subject to the injured party's classification as a Class I or Class II insured. Glennon v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 812 So.2d 927, 929-33 (Miss.2002) (citing a litany of Mississippi precedent and stating these classifications are firmly embedded in our law and are the basis for determining the rights/remedies of injured parties and the liabilities of insurance companies); but see id. at 933-34 (Diaz, J., dissenting) (stating class status is irrelevant when determining uninsured motorist coverage); Meadows v. Miss. Farm Bureau Ins. Co., 634 So.2d 108, 111-12 (Miss.1994) (McRae, J., dissenting) (contending that the Court should abandon class distinctions). Persons included in Class I consist of the named insured, and residents of the same household, his spouse and relatives of either, while in a motor vehicle or otherwise. Glennon, 812 So.2d at 931 (quoting Miss.Code Ann. § 83-11-103(b) (1999)) (emphasis omitted). Persons included in Class II consist of any person who uses, with the consent, expressed or implied, of the named insured, the motor vehicle to which the policy applies. Glennon, 812 So.2d at 931 (quoting Miss.Code Ann. § 83-11-103(b) (1999)) (emphasis omitted). ¶ 16. The coverage afforded Class I insureds extends to all circumstances when a member of the first class is injured by an uninsured motorist. This broad protection to members of the first class arises by virtue of the phrase `while in a motor vehicle or otherwise.' Glennon, 812 So.2d at 931 (quoting Stevens v. United States Fid. & Guar. Co., 345 So.2d 1041, 1043 (Miss.1977)). Accord Gov't Employees Ins. Co. v. Brown, 446 So.2d 1002 (Miss.1984). [4] In the case of a Class II injured insured, the individual is only covered because he or she is in the covered automobile. Glennon, 812 So.2d at 931. We recently addressed the degree to which a Class II is covered in Mascarella v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 833 So.2d 575 (Miss.2003). Though we have always recognized the inherent entitlement of Class I insureds to stack coverage for which they contracted, in Mascarella we adopted a much more restrictive stance regarding uninsured motorist coverage of Class II insureds than we had approved of in times past.