Delgado v. American Family Insurance Group

217 P.3d 563, 125 Nev. 564, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 44, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 47, 2009 WL 3151165
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 1, 2009
Docket49008
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 217 P.3d 563 (Delgado v. American Family Insurance Group) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Delgado v. American Family Insurance Group, 217 P.3d 563, 125 Nev. 564, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 44, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 47, 2009 WL 3151165 (Neb. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

By the Court,

Hardesty, C.J.:

Appellant Dionicia Delgado was injured when the automobile in which she was a passenger collided with another automobile, allegedly as a result of the drivers’ concurrent negligence. In this appeal, we consider whether a passenger, such as Dionicia, may recover under the permissive driver’s insurance policy both liability benefits based on the policyholder’s negligence and underinsured motorist benefits based on the other driver’s underinsured status. 1

Here, a passenger made a claim against both at-fault drivers’ insurance policies and recovered the liability limits under those policies. However, alleging that her damages exceeded the limits of both liability policies, the passenger then made a claim against the permissive driver’s underinsured motorist policy. The permissive driver’s insurance company denied the claim, arguing that, under Nevada law, an insured who is covered under the liability policy cannot also recover under the underinsured motorist provision of that same policy, as such recovery amounts to impermissible “stacking” of the policies.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the insurance company, concluding that a passenger involved in a two-car automobile accident who alleged that both drivers were negligent 2 could not recover liability benefits and underinsured motorist benefits under the permissive driver’s single insurance policy pursuant to Peterson v. Colonial Insurance Co., 100 Nev. 474, 686 P.2d 239 (1984), and Baker v. Criterion Insurance, 107 Nev. 25, 805 P.2d 599 (1991).

We conclude that a passenger who is injured by two concurrently negligent drivers may recover from both the permissive driver’s sin *567 gle insurance policy liability benefits based on the permissive driver’s negligence and underinsured motorist benefits based on the other driver’s underinsured status. In so doing, we clarify that Peterson and Baker are not determinative on this issue. The antistacking rule set forth in Peterson and Baker is not implicated when a passenger, whose injuries are attributable to two jointly negligent drivers, exhausts the liability limits of the permissive driver’s policy without satisfying his or her damages, and seeks recovery under the permissive driver’s underinsured motorist policy based on the other driver’s underinsured status. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In December 2004, appellant Dionicia Delgado was injured in an automobile accident while riding as a passenger in a car owned and operated by Eunice Marcelino. Marcelino had attempted to turn left across the lanes of northbound traffic on Nellis Boulevard in Las Vegas. A northbound car, owned and operated by Toquanda Dean, struck Marcelino’s car, severely injuring Dionicia. Marcelino was insured by American Family Insurance Group for liability up to $50,000 per person and had underinsured motorist coverage up to $25,000 per person. Dean carried an insurance policy with a $15,000 liability limitation.

Marcelino’s underinsured motorist policy with American Family promises that American Family will “pay compensatory damages for bodily injury which an insured person is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an underinsured motor vehicle.” Marcelino’s underinsured motorist policy defines the “[i]nsured person” as the contracting party, relatives, “[a]nyone else occupying [Marcelino’s] . . . insured car,” and anyone claiming damages due to bodily injury caused by a person in the car. The parties do not dispute that because Dionicia was occupying Marcelino’s car as a guest passenger at the time of the accident, Dionicia was an “[i]nsured person” under Marcelino’s underinsured motorist provision.

American Family’s policy further defined an “[ujnderinsured motor vehicle” as “a motor vehicle which is insured by a liability bond or policy at the time of the accident and the amount of the bond or policy . . . [i]s less than the limit of underinsured motorists coverage under this policy.” Although the policy specifically excludes Marcelino’s vehicle from uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, another driver’s vehicle may qualify as underinsured under the policy if the other driver carried less liability coverage than the limit of Marcelino’s underinsured motorist coverage.

Dionicia offered to settle her claims with American Family for a total of $75,000 — $50,000 for the liability coverage limit plus *568 $25,000 for the underinsured motorist coverage limit. (Dionicia also offered to settle with Dean’s insurance carrier for the extent of Dean’s $15,000 liability policy.) American Family denied Dionicia’s underinsured motorist claim, reasoning that Marcelino’s vehicle could not qualify as an underinsured vehicle according to the policy terms.

Dionicia and her husband, appellant Diego Delgado, filed suit, complaining, in relevant part, that American Family breached its contract by denying Dionicia’s demand for payment of Marcelino’s underinsured motorist policy limits. The Delgados’ complaint specifically alleged that Marcelino’s underinsured motorist policy “created a contractual duty and obligation on the part of [American Family] to . . . compensate [Dionicia] for injuries and damages caused by an underinsured motorist, in this instance Defendant [Marcelino].” (Emphases added.) Thus, the Delgados grounded their breach of contract claim on the factual assertion that Marcelino’s vehicle qualified as the underinsured vehicle.

American Family moved for summary judgment on the Delgados’ breach of contract claim, arguing that the Delgados could not recover under the factual assertion that Marcelino’s car was the underinsured vehicle because the coverage endorsement in Marcelino’s policy with American Family excluded Marcelino’s car from qualifying as underinsured. 3 In support of its argument, American Family cited to this court’s decisions in Peterson and Baker, in which this court precluded recovery under both liability and underinsured motorist coverage provisions of a single insurance policy.

In their opposition, the Delgados argued that the coverage endorsement did not prohibit recovery in this case because the coverage endorsement only excluded vehicles covered under the insurance policy, and the Delgados alleged that their underinsured motorist claim was based on the Dean vehicle being underinsured. Further, the Delgados distinguished their case from Peterson and Baker by arguing that, unlike the claimants in Peterson and Baker, they are not seeking to recover under Marcelino’s liability and underinsured motorist policies based on Marcelino’s negligence alone.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
217 P.3d 563, 125 Nev. 564, 125 Nev. Adv. Rep. 44, 2009 Nev. LEXIS 47, 2009 WL 3151165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/delgado-v-american-family-insurance-group-nev-2009.