Court Opinion

ID: 9624191
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 06:53:31.75586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:41:04.760819
License: Public Domain

McFarland, J.,
dissenting: K.S.A. 40-284 requires all automobile liability insurance policies to include provisions whereby the insured can recover, from his own insurance carrier, legal damages occasioned by an accident with an uninsured motorist. K.S.A. 40-285 defines the term “uninsured motor vehicle” to include vehicles insured by insolvent insurance companies.
In Winner v. Ratzlaff, 211 Kan. 59, Syl. ¶ 6, 505 P.2d 606 (1973), this court stated:
*516“An insured who has a claim against an uninsured motorist has three options open to him, complying in each with policy provisos consonant with the statute: He may file an action directly against his uninsured motorist liability carrier without joining the uninsured motorist as a party defendant; he may file an action joining both the insurer and the uninsured motorist as party defendants; or, he may file an action against the uninsured motorist alone without joining the insurer as a party defendant. In each of these options he may litigate all the issues of liability and damages.”
The mandatory coverage is for injuries caused by uninsured motorists. The policy in question gave broader coverage than was statutorily required and included a new category of motorists— unknown'hit and run motorists, provided there was physical contact between the vehicles. Nowhere in K.S.A. 40-284 or 40-285 is mandatory coverage required for offending unknown motorists or financially insolvent motorists. The majority opinion herein expands K.S.A. 40-284 to mandate coverage for injuries occasioned by unknown motorists, and whether the motorist was or was not insured is irrelevant. With unknown motorists now included in the term “uninsured motorists,” the possibilities of fraud grow in geometric proportion. The wisdom of such inclusion is properly for the legislature to determine. In my opinion this is far beyond the clear language of the statute. I would affirm.