Opinion ID: 741876
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The UM Act's Legislative Birth

Text: 21 Enacted in 1952, Mississippi's Safety Responsibility Act provided innocent persons killed or injured in automobile accidents with compensation for injuries resulting from a driver's negligence. See Travelers Indem. Co. v. Watkins, 209 So.2d 630, 632 (Miss.1968); see generally Richard T. Phillips, A Guide to Uninsured Motorist Insurance Law in Mississippi, 52 MISS.L.J. 255, 257 (1982). The statute provided that insurers would provide specified amounts of liability coverage for accidents occurring in the United States and Canada. § 63-15-43(2)(b), (3). However, the Safety Responsibility Act left essentially three gaps in coverage: negligent drivers would often violate the law and fail to purchase liability insurance; coverage was denied on the basis of uninsured motorist exclusions or policy breaches; and the tortfeasor sometimes happened to be a hit-and-run driver. Phillips, 52 MISS.L.J. at 258. 22 The UM Act was designed to fill these gaps. Otherwise known as  'family protection insurance,'  uninsured motorist coverage provide[s] innocent injured motorists a means of recovery of all sums to which they are entitled from an uninsured motorist. Wickline v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 530 So.2d 708, 712 (Miss.1988). Indeed, the UM Act was hailed as an example of the successful interworkings of the legislature, the insurance industry, the courts, and advocates representing injured Mississippians. Phillips, 52 MISS.L.J. at 255; see also Rampy v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 278 So.2d 428, 431-32 (Miss.1973) (noting the insurance industry's role in passing the UM Act). In particular, because the Safety Responsibility Act only offered incentives to purchase liability insurance, those injured by persons without liability coverage were often left without adequate monetary compensation for their injuries. Phillips, 52 MISS.L.J. at 257. The UM Act eliminated this one free accident scenario and provided that insurance companies must provide Mississippi motorists with the same level of uninsured motorist coverage provided in the Safety Responsibility Act. Id. at 258. With this basic framework on the books, Mississippi courts were trusted with the job of defining the precise contours of the UM Act.