De Zafra v. Farmers Insurance

346 P.3d 652, 270 Or. App. 77, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 365
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided March 25, 2015·No. 110506648; A152630·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

DEVORE, J.

Plaintiff was the victim of a drive-by shooting. As an insured under an auto policy, she sought uninsured motorist (UM) benefits in a contract action against defendant, Farmers Insurance Company (Farmers). After cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court dismissed her claim on the basis that her injury did not “arise out of the * * * use of [an] uninsured vehicle,” as provided in ORS 742.504(l)(a) and Farmers’ policy. On appeal, the issue is whether this case is governed by our decision 22 years ago interpreting policy language in a claim for UM benefits or is governed by a more recent decision of the Supreme Court interpreting similar statutory language in a claim for personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. Because statutory language prevails over policy language and the Supreme Court’s interpretation of similar terms is dispositive, we conclude that the trial court erred in part and that Farmers’ policy may cover plaintiffs injuries, although other issues remain for decision. Therefore, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

The relevant facts are undisputed. Two cars traveled the same direction on a street in northeast Portland. Plaintiff was a passenger in a car insured by Farmers with UM coverage required by ORS 742.504.1 In the next lane, Jesse Guerrero drove a vehicle alongside plaintiffs car. Gunshots were fired from Guerrero’s vehicle into plaintiffs car, causing her serious injuries. Because Guerrero’s insurer denied coverage for his liability, his vehicle was deemed an [79] “uninsured motor vehicle” under the terms of plaintiffs policy and statute.2 Plaintiff made a claim for UM benefits with Farmers. The insurer denied her claim, and she commenced an action against Farmers for breach of contract.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment on coverage. Farmers contended that our decision in Worldwide Underwriters, Ins. Co. v. Jackson, 121 Or App 292, 855 P2d 166, rev den, 318 Or 26 (1993) (Jackson), should control because the decision construed the same phrase in a UM policy (“arising out of’); determined a gunshot, not a vehicle, to be the “direct cause” of injury; and upheld the denial of coverage. Plaintiff contended that a more recent Supreme Court decision in Carrigan v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 326 Or 97, 949 P2d 705 (1997), should control, because the court construed similar language in the PIP statute and rejected a “direct cause” interpretation. Plaintiff reasoned that Carrigan portends that ORS 742.504(l)(a) should require UM coverage for plaintiffs injuries. Farmers responded that Carrigan’s interpretation should be limited to PIP coverage as a different form of coverage that provides no-fault coverage for medical bills and wage loss. The trial court deemed Carrigan distinguishable, found Jackson to be on point, denied plaintiffs motion, granted Farmers’ motion, and entered judgment dismissing plaintiffs action.

On appeal, plaintiff assigns error to the order granting defendant summary judgment and denying plaintiff summary judgment. Plaintiff argues that our earlier decision in Jackson did not consider the controlling terms of ORS 742.504(l)(a) on mandated UM coverage and that the Supreme Court construed the parallel terms of ORS 742.520 on PIP coverage. Farmers responds that Jackson is still good law and, if nothing else, the doctrine of stare decisis counsels adherence to Jackson as to UM coverage for a drive-by shooting. Resolution of the dispute turns upon whether our prior conclusion remains true in light of the mandatory terms of the UM statute, ORS 742.504(l)(a).

Our decision in Jackson and the cases on which it relied were indeed cases that construed policies without [80] considering a statutory mandate for coverage, if any pertained. Based in policy language, those cases developed a standard for the causal connection between an injury and use of a vehicle. We first recap Jackson in order to then assess the implication of Corrigan as to the statutory mandate for UM coverage.3

Jackson also involved a drive-by shooting. As a car approached the victim, a man leaned out the car window and fired a gun, blinding the victim in his right eye. The man escaped in the car unidentified. The victim’s UM insurer sought a declaratory ruling that, under the terms of the policy, the injury did not “arise out of the ownership, maintenance, or use” of the uninsured vehicle.4 The victim asserted that there was a necessary relationship between the use of the vehicle and the injury, because the vehicle was used to launch the assault, approach him without detection, fire the shot, and escape. We responded, “It is immaterial that the vehicle may have facilitated the shooting and the escape. It was not the ‘direct cause’ of the shooting.” 121 Or App at 295. We had “no doubt that the use of the assailant’s vehicle was ‘within the line of causation’ of the injury.” Id. at 296. But the policy language raised a question of “causation and remoteness.” Id. Summarizing prior cases, we declared, “Coverage depends on whether the injury ‘was directly caused by some act wholly disassociated from and independent of the vehicle’s use.” Id. (emphasis added). We concluded that the “critical fact” was that the injury was “directly caused by the use of a gun.” Id. at 297. Therefore, the injury did not “arise out of the ownership, maintenance or use” of an uninsured vehicle. Id. at 294. In reaching that conclusion, we relied on two cases that had construed liability policies to determine the requisite causal connection between a vehicle [81] and an injury: Oakridge Comm. Ambulance v. U.S. Fidelity, 278 Or 21, 24, 563 P2d 164 (1977) (Oakridge Ambulance) (death allegedly linked to delayed ambulance), and Jordan v. Lee, 76 Or App 472, 475, 709 P2d 752, rev den, 300 Or 545 (1986) (gunshot injury in a travel trailer).5 We affirmed the judgment denying coverage.

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De Zafra v. Farmers Insurance, 346 P.3d 652, 270 Or. App. 77, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 365 (Or. Ct. App. 2015).

346 P.3d 652 (De Zafra v. Farmers Insurance) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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