Opinion ID: 2959684
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Meaning Of “Use” Or “Using”

Text: The General Assembly requires uninsured and underinsured motorist insurance to extend to the “use” of a covered vehicle. Code § 38.2-2206(A), (B). Accordingly, the Selective Insurance Policy, like many motor vehicle insurance policies, includes “use” or “using” as a type of “occupying” a “covered auto.” But whether the obligation is found in the insurance policy itself, or can be found only in the Code, the meaning of “use” or “using” is the same because “[t]he provisions of . . . Code § 38.2-2206 are part of the contract of insurance, and we will not consider language in a policy that, arguably, is inconsistent with the statute as we have construed it.” Dyer v. Dairyland Ins. Co., 267 Va. 726, 731, 594 S.E.2d 592, 595 (2004) (internal quotation marks, citation, and alterations omitted). We have explained that the “critical inquiry” in determining whether an individual was “using” a vehicle requires ascertaining “whether there was a causal relationship between the incident and the employment of the insured vehicle as a vehicle.” Slagle v. Hartford Ins. Co., 267 Va. 629, 635, 594 S.E.2d 582, 585 (2004). Also, “we have established some general guidelines” for this analysis, including that “[t]he injured person must be using the insured vehicle as a vehicle and as an integral part of his mission,” that “[a]ctual use of the vehicle as a vehicle is not restricted to its transportation function,” and that “[u]se of the vehicle need not be the direct, proximate cause of the injury in the strict legal sense.” Id. at 636, 594 S.E.2d at 586 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). We have not gone further in defining what it means to be “using” a vehicle for purposes of a motor vehicle insurance policy because of the “infinite variety of factual patterns” in which the question arises. Simpson, 279 Va. at 699, 692 S.E.2d at 247. Instead, adequate guidance to decide the case before us can be found by reviewing our prior decisions on the issue of “using” a 14 vehicle. See, e.g., id. at 699-701, 692 S.E.2d at 247-48; Slagle, 267 Va. at 634-37, 594 S.E.2d at 585-86.