Opinion ID: 1060777
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Tennessee Approach

Text: After carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches, we believe that the rebuttable presumption rule is the soundest approach in the context of an uninsured/underinsured motorist policy [14] as it provides the best balance between the competing interests. We agree with the Supreme Court of Connecticut that the instant issue is akin to unjust enrichment law: in both instances, an undeserving party seeks forgiveness for his or her own breach. [15] See Murphy, 538 A.2d at 224. Therefore, once it is determined that the insured has failed to provide timely notice in accordance with the insurance policy, it is presumed that the insurer has been prejudiced by the breach. The insured, however, may rebut this presumption by proffering competent evidence that the insurer was not prejudiced by the insured's delay. Although summary judgment is not proper in the present case, we recognize that summary judgment may, nevertheless, be appropriate in some circumstances. We quote approvingly the following non-exclusive guidelines for determining whether the insurer has been prejudiced: the availability of witnesses to the accident; the ability to discover other information regarding the conditions of the locale where the accident occurred; any physical changes in the location of the accident during the period of the delay; the existence of official reports concerning the occurrence; the preparation and preservation of demonstrative and illustrative evidence, such as the vehicles involved in the occurrence, or photographs and diagrams of the scene; the ability of experts to reconstruct the scene and the occurrence; and so on. C.G. Tate, 279 S.E.2d at 776 (quoting Great Am. Ins. Co. v. C.G. Tate Const., 46 N.C.App. 427, 265 S.E.2d 467, 473 (N.C.App.1980)). We acknowledge that attempting to prove what information the insurer would have been able to discover had notice been promptly provided would be difficult for either party. See Comment, 68 Harv. L.Rev. at 1438; Jones, 821 S.W.2d at 803; Brakeman, 371 A.2d at 198; Campbell, 32 Cal.Rptr. 827, 384 P.2d at 157. However, we are less sympathetic to the insured in this instance, since the insured bears sole responsibility for breaching a term of the contract that was intended to preserve fairness to the insurer.