Opinion ID: 2545717
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Uninsured Motorist Coverage and Stacking

Text: As noted in the district court's order, Florida's public policy, as reflected in section 627.727, Florida Statutes, favors the providing of insurance coverage for losses caused by uninsured motorists. Uninsured motorist protection does not inure to a particular motor vehicle, but instead protects the named insured or insured members of his family against bodily injury inflicted by the negligence of any uninsured motorist under whatever conditions, locations, or circumstances any of such insureds happen to be in at the time. Coleman v. Florida Ins. Guar. Ass'n, Inc., 517 So.2d 686, 689 (Fla.1988) (citing Mullis v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 252 So.2d 229 (Fla.1971)). In the event of a loss caused by an uninsured motorist, stacking allows an insured who pays separate premiums for uninsured motorist coverage to obtain benefits for each premium paid. Rando, 556 F.3d at 1175 n. 1 (quoting United Servs. Auto. Ass'n v. Roth, 744 So.2d 1227, 1229 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999)). Florida law with respect to the stacking of uninsured motorist coverage has evolved over the last four decades. At present, although Florida law prohibits the stacking of most forms of motor vehicle insurance coverage, uninsured motorist coverage is expressly excluded from this prohibition. See § 627.4132, Fla. Stat. (2009) (providing that the prohibition against stacking of motor vehicle insurance policies contained in that statute does not apply ... [t]o uninsured motorist coverage). Therefore, the stacking of uninsured motorist coverage is permissible under Florida law. Moreover, the stacking of uninsured motorist coverage was permissible at the times relevant to the events in this case. We have explained the rationale for stacking uninsured motorist coverage as follows: The owner of several vehicles, by paying a single premium for coverage applicable to only one of them, secures coverage for himself and his family while occupying the uninsured vehicles as well as the insured vehicle. Thus, when an insured pays additional uninsured motorist coverage premiums, he has purchased additional coverage coextensive with and supplementing the insurance already available under a single coverage. Schermer, Automobile Liability Insurance, § 31.02[8] (1987). Otherwise, nothing would have been gained by payment of an additional premium because the insured's purchase of a single uninsured motorist coverage protects him  whenever or wherever bodily injury is inflicted upon him by the negligence of an uninsured motorist. Mullis, 252 So.2d at 238. Coleman, 517 So.2d at 689. Although the Randos paid three separate premiums for uninsured motorist coverage, the Delaware policy expressly precludes combining the Randos' Florida and Delaware policies in order to increase the amount of uninsured motorist benefits available to them. In other words, the Delaware policy prohibits the stacking of the Randos' Delaware uninsured motorist coverage with the Florida policy. Because the Delaware policy was executed in Florida and Florida law governs whether the anti-stacking provision contained in the Delaware policy is enforceable, we next examine the treatment of anti-stacking provisions under Florida law.