Jones v. Federated Mutual Insurance Company.
Jones v. Federated Mutual Insurance Company.
Opinion
*237 Verlinda and Kevin Jones appeal the summary judgment entered against them and in favor of Federated Mutual Insurance Company. They contest the trial court's ruling that they were validly excluded from uninsured motorist coverage provided by a policy issued by that company. For reasons that follow, we affirm.
Summary judgment is proper "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." OCGA § 9-11-56 (c). "In our de novo review of the grant of a motion for summary judgment, we must view the evidence, and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the nonmovant." (Citation and punctuation omitted.)
Cowart v. Widener
,
So viewed, the record shows the following. On April 3, 2015, the Joneses were test-driving a car owned by Five Star Automotive Group, when that car was rear-ended by a vehicle being driven by Rashod Lamar. Neither of the Joneses had a personal automobile insurance policy. Seeking to recover damages for alleged injuries from the car wreck, the Joneses filed the instant action. They named Lamar as a defendant, and they served a copy of the action upon Federated Mutual, with which Five Star had an insurance policy ("Policy") at the time of the collision. 1 The Joneses accepted the liability limits from Lamar's insurer and executed a limited liability release pursuant to OCGA § 33-24-41.1, 2 thereby exhausting all liability coverage. 3 Maintaining, however, that their medical bills stemming from the car wreck exceeded the amounts received from Lamar's insurer, the Joneses sought uninsured motorist coverage under the Policy pursuant to OCGA § 33-7-11, the Georgia Uninsured Motorist Act ("UM Statute"). 4
*238 Federated Mutual moved for summary judgment, asserting that the Policy afforded the Joneses no uninsured motorist coverage. In support of its motion, Federal Mutual presented evidence that when Five Star procured the Policy and thus decided the scope of coverage it would obtain, Five Star's authorized representative executed a "Georgia Commercial Automobile Uninsured Motorists Coverage Option Form" (the "Uninsured Motorist Provision") selecting thereon a $1,000,000 uninsured motorist coverage limit for "directors, officers, partners or owners of the named insured and family members who qualify as an insured." On that same form, as Federated Mutual further pointed out, Five Star's authorized representative expressly *107 rejected uninsured motorist coverage for "any other person who qualifies as an insured." At the time of the collision, as the Joneses stipulated, neither of them was a director, officer, owner, or partner of Five Star, nor was either a family member of any Five Star director, officer, owner, or partner.
Notwithstanding, the Joneses opposed Federated Mutual's motion on grounds that the Uninsured Motorist Provision-which resulted in "tiered" uninsured motorist coverage (for different groups of individuals)-was void as contravening both the plain language of the UM Statute and Georgia's public policy. Therefore, the Joneses urged that the $1,000,000 option applied to them each as an "insured" in accordance with the UM Statute.
After a hearing, the trial court ruled in favor of Federated Mutual. It ascertained that the plain terms of the Uninsured Motorist Provision revealed the contracting parties' intent to exclude uninsured motorist coverage for persons such as the Joneses. And in rejecting the Joneses' arguments that the Uninsured Motorist Provision was void, the trial court relied on
Crouch v. Federated Mut. Ins. Co
.,
1. We first review the applicable statutory and contractual framework. "In Georgia, an insurer may fix the terms of its policy as it wishes, insuring against certain risks and excluding others, provided the terms are not contrary to law."
Hurst v. Grange Mut. Cas. Co
.,
When an uninsured motorist policy provision is in conflict with the clear intent of OCGA § 33-7-11, the policy provision is unenforceable and the statute controls. Exclusions in uninsured motorist endorsements cannot circumvent the *239 clear mandate of the [UM Statute] by withholding the protection required.
(Citations and punctuation omitted.)
Dees v. Logan
,
In relevant part, the UM Statute states in paragraph (a) (1), "No automobile liability policy or motor vehicle liability policy shall be issued or delivered in this state ... unless it contains an endorsement or provisions undertaking to pay the insured damages for bodily injury ... sustained from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle...." But paragraph (a) (3) of the UM Statute states, "The coverage required under paragraph (1) of this subsection shall not be applicable where any insured named in the policy shall reject the coverage in writing." Together, these paragraphs provide that uninsured motorist "coverage must appear in every [automobile liability] policy unless rejected in writing by the insured named in the policy."
Doe v. Rampley
,
We thus turn to the Policy because "[courts] must employ the standard rules of contract construction to determine the meaning of the provisions of an insurance policy."
Owners Ins. Co. v. Smith Mechanical Contractors
,
2. In an effort to escape the summary judgment ruling and to establish that the $1,000,000 option of uninsured motorist coverage applies to them, the Joneses reassert on appeal that the Uninsured Motorist Provision is void as contravening: (a) the UM Statute; and (b) Georgia's public policy. See generally
Merrill v. Lee
,
(a) Contending that the Uninsured Motorist Provision runs afoul of Georgia's UM Statute, the Joneses present the following two arguments.
(i) First, the Joneses emphasize that the UM Statute sets forth a definition of "insured" that includes "any person who uses, with the expressed or implied consent of the named insured, the motor vehicle to which the policy applies." OCGA § 33-7-11 (b) (1) (B). Maintaining that they fell within that definition, the Joneses argue that the grant of summary judgment to Federated Mutual impermissibly disregarded that statutory definition.
This contention lacks merit because, as explained above, paragraph (a) (3) of the UM Statute expressly authorizes named insureds-such as Five Star in the instant case-to reject in writing the uninsured motorist coverage required by that statute's paragraph (a) (1). See OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1, 3) ;
Nat. Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Johnson
,
Although the Joneses have cited us to
State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Murphy
,
(ii) The Joneses' second attack upon the Uninsured Motorist Provision as ruling afoul of the UM Statute asserts that the UM Statute allows a named insured either "to choose an amount of uninsured motorist coverage or to reject uninsured motorist coverage in its entirety[,] but not to do both." (Emphasis supplied.)
*109
The Joneses have pointed to no language within the UM Statute as imposing an "all or nothing" restriction upon uninsured motorist coverage; and we find none. Had the legislature intended for a rejection of uninsured motorist coverage as to any
one
statutorily-defined "insured" to apply to
all other
statutorily-defined "insureds," it could have said so; but it did not. See
Jones
,
Indeed, the trial court correctly determined that this issue is controlled by the analogous case of
Crouch
,
Notwithstanding, the individual attempted to establish that the $1,000,000 option of uninsured motorist coverage applied to her, arguing that "the two options of UM coverage contained in the Federated policy are not permitted under Georgia law."
Crouch
,
The Joneses point out that the insurance policy underlying Crouch allotted each group at least some amount of coverage. But that distinction does not lead to an outcome in their favor. Material here is that, in both Crouch and the instant case, the tiered options chosen by the named insureds were expressly permitted by the UM Statute.
Notably, other jurisdictions with uninsured motorist statutory provisions similar to the UM Statute's provisions at issue here have upheld tiered uninsured motorist coverage in accordance with the named insureds' elections. See, e.g.,
Federated Mut. Ins. Co., Inc. v. Vaughn
,
*110 from rejecting UM coverage for [one category of insureds] while accepting UM coverage for other insureds);
*243
Stoms v. Federated Svcs. Ins. Co
.,
(b) Finally, the Joneses contend that the two options of uninsured motorist coverage contained in the Uninsured Motorist Provision raise "a significant public policy concern." Asserting that the UM Statute "does not discriminate against a driver who is not financially or familiarly connected to the named insured," the Joneses claim that the $1,000,000 option should be afforded to them also.
"[T]he legislature ... is empowered by the Constitution to decide public policy, and to implement that policy by enacting laws."
Commonwealth Investment Co. v.Frye
,
The Joneses have not specified which public policy they claim is violated; nor have they demonstrated that their generalized public policy contention is free from doubt. Here, each option selected on the Uninsured Motorist Provision-(i) one selecting "excess" uninsured motorist coverage; and (ii) the other rejecting uninsured motorist coverage-is expressly authorized by the UM Statute. OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1, 3). And "[t]he legislative enactment of a statute is a conclusive expression of public policy."
Villanueva v. First American Title Ins. Co
.,
More pointedly, it is clear that the Joneses take issue specifically with Five Star's
rejection
of uninsured motorist coverage. But named insureds may reject in writing uninsured motorist coverage. OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (3). As this Court has discerned, "[a]s a matter of public
*244
policy, [a] written rejection is required: (1) to be certain that insurers notify insureds about the UM coverage available to them and (2) to encourage, without requiring, drivers to elect to carry the minimum amount of UM coverage." (Emphasis omitted.)
Jones
,
Other jurisdictions with comparable uninsured motorist statutory provisions have rejected similar public policy challenges to tiered uninsured motorist coverage. See, e.g.,
Vaughn
,
We are mindful that the UM Statute "resulted from public concern over increasingly frequent hardships imposed upon persons sustaining bodily and property damage caused by uninsured and financially irresponsible motorists."
Murphy
,
Judgment affirmed.
McMillian and Reese, JJ., concur.
See OCGA § 33-7-11 (d).
See generally
Daniels v. Johnson
,
See
See
FCCI Ins. Co. v. McLendon Enterprises
,
The Joneses included the word "obviously," as the Joneses explain in their brief, because "Five Star sells cars and routinely allows the public to test drive its vehicles."
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Verlinda Jones v. Federated Mutual Insurance Company
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published