Court Opinion

ID: 9793698
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:51:36.099549+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:40.811841
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE SHEEHY,
specially concurring:
I concur in the foregoing opinion and wish to add other reasons for my concurrence in the result.
There are two types of uninsured motor vehicle statutes. One type is called the mandatory insured motorist statute, wherein it is required that every motor vehicle policy of insurance includes such coverage. Seventeen states have this type of coverage. The other type of uninsured motorist coverage is the “mandatory offerings *221statute” of which Montana’s statute is typical. According to 1 Widiss, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurance Section 2.5 (2d ed. 1985), there are thirty-three states which mandate that uninsured motorist coverage be offered in every policy of liability insurance in the state.
The second thing to note is that there is a significant difference between most of the statutes requiring uninsured motorist coverage and the statute that is provided in Montana. Most of the statutes of the other states refer to the “uninsured motorist” but Montana’s statute refers to the uninsured motor vehicle. The pertinent language in Section 33-23-301, MCA is:
“No automobile liability . . . policy shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state . . . unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto ... for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting therefrom.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The term “uninsured motor vehicles” is unqualified in the statute, is unambiguous, and needs no interpretation. It is a matter of public policy that such coverage be mandatorily offered and if the coverage offered is less than what is mandated by our statute, the public policy requirement has not been met. Section 33-23-201, MCA.
An example of a different kind of uninsured motorist statute can be found in Kansas. There, the provisions of Kan. Stat. Ann. Section 40-284(a) (Supp. 1985) state:
“No automobile liability insurance policy . . . shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this state . . . unless the policy contains or has endorsed thereon, a provision ... for payment of part or all sums which the insured or the insured’s legal representative shall be legally entitled to recover as damages from the uninsured owner or operator of the motor vehicle because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting therefrom, sustained by the insured, caused by accident and arising out of ownership, maintenance or use of such motor vehicle . . (Emphasis supplied.)
It requires no great intellectual skill to determine that the Kansas statute is directed to the status of the driver or operator as uninsured, whereas the Montana statute is directed to the status of the uninsured motor vehicle. The difference is critical in this case, because although the use of the uninsured motor vehicle in this case was insured by the driver’s separate insurance policy, and thus *222would qualify under the Kansas statute, the Montana statute has no reference to ownership, maintenance or use and such terms cannot be used to diminish the mandated offered coverage that Montana requires under Section 33-23-201, MCA.
As to the application of the statute therefore, I would hold in this case that under a Montana statute, if the motor vehicle itself is uninsured, then the uninsured motor vehicle coverage of the other vehicles attaches and coverage is extended to its insureds under the uninsured motor vehicle coverage.
There are other results commanded by our decision here which are not discussed for the reason that they have not yet been before the Court. For reasons that should appear clear to counsel on remand, it seems to me that the medical payments coverage should be reduced by the amount recovered under the liability insurance policy that was issued to the driver to the extent that such reduction does not reduce the recovery from State Farm below the sum of $55,000. In other words, the $100,000 received from the insurance on the driver would be used to reduce the medical payments coverage in this State Farm policy.