Court Opinion

ID: 9460484
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:51:51.056516+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:38.672645
License: Public Domain

PELL, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
On principles of justice and pursuant to guidelines established in the law of contracts, courts should scrutinize very closely cases such as the present one. The courts, it appears to me, should be extremely reluctant to provide an insured, who has only paid for a minimal amount of liability insurance, with what amounts to umbrella coverage.
I do concur in the majority opinion after close scrutiny because, if we accept, as we must, the evidence favorable to the appellee, the insured here did not get that for which he paid his premium. Included in that for which he paid was coverage for a permissive user and for a relative residing in his household. The jury could well have concluded on the evidence of this case that had the named insured been driving the vehicle at the time of the accident, the insurance company would have accepted with alacrity an offer of settlement within the policy limits. The named insured paid for equal coverage for a permissive user or for a relative residing in his household. The coverage was not afforded.