Court Opinion

ID: 9863192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 03:11:19.555819+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:47:53.492430
License: Public Domain

SMITH, Presiding Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the opinion of the court but feel some additional comments concerning *420procedure in this area are required. Uninsured motorist litigation presents problems which are not easily resolved by application of common law principles or our present rules of procedure. Recovery under uninsured motorist insurance requires a plaintiff to establish liability and injury under tort principles against the uninsured motorist, and thereafter policy coverage against the insurance company under contract principles. Traditionally we have not permitted such causes of action to be combined in a single lawsuit where the tort-feasor and the contracting company are different. See State ex rel. Cozean v. Meyer, 449 S.W.2d 377 (Mo.App.1969). Such an approach requires that a claim under an uninsured motorist provision be litigated through two lawsuits; a process which serves no advantage to the litigants, the busy courts or the public. Possibly that approach should be reexamined in a proper case, which this is not.
We have held here that the insurance company has a right to intervene in this litigation pursuant to Rule 52.12(a), which conclusion is logical and necessary to protect the insurance company. As 52.12(a) is presently written, the intervention is one of right and I find no basis upon which a trial court can condition that intervention..
It appears to me that the unique nature of this type litigation and the frequency with which it occurs would warrant an examination by the Supreme Court Rules Committee of procedures for this specific type of litigation. I see no reason why a rule cannot provide for combining the tort and contract causes of action for trial. Nor can I see any reason why the right of the insurance company to intervene in the underlying litigation cannot be conditioned upon its agreement to try liability, damages and coverage in one lawsuit. The law must be and is flexible enough to accommodate the changes constantly occurring in society. When a unique and frequent type of litigation emerges we should develop procedures to efficiently deal with it. As to uninsured motorist litigation we have not as yet done so.