Erie Insurance Exchange v. Beutler, S.

Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided June 16, 2026·No. 2095 EDA 2025·Unpublished·King

Opinion

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT O.P. 65.37

ERIE INSURANCE EXCHANGE : IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF : PENNSYLVANIA

:

v. :

:

:

SARA C. BEUTLER, INDIVIDUALLY : AND IN HER CAPACITY AS THE : ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF : No. 2095 EDA 2025 RANDOLF BEUTLER, DECEASED, AND : ESTATE OF RANDOLF S. BEUTLER, : BY AND THROUGH ITS : ADMINISTRATOR :

:

Appellants

Appeal from the Order Entered July 2, 2025 In the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County Civil Division at No(s):

2024-10894-MJ

BEFORE: LAZARUS, P.J., PANELLA, P.J.E., and KING, J. MEMORANDUM BY KING, J.: FILED JUNE 16, 2026 Appellants, Sara C. Beutler, individually and in her capacity as the administrator of the estate of Randolf S. Beutler (“Decedent”), and the estate of Decedent through its administrator, appeal from the order entered in the Chester County Court of Common Pleas, which granted summary judgment in favor of Appellee, Erie Insurance Exchange, in this declaratory judgment action. We affirm.

The relevant facts and procedural history of this matter are as follows.

Decedent and Mrs. Beutler owned four automobiles and a motorcycle. Appellee issued an insurance policy covering the four automobiles.

Progressive issued an insurance policy to cover the motorcycle. On August 24, 2018, Decedent executed a waiver of stacked coverage. At the time of the waiver, there were four vehicles insured under the policy: Auto 1, a 2009 Kia Spectra; Auto 2, a 2001 Toyota Tacoma; Auto 3, a 2017 Hyundai Tucson; and Auto 4, a 2016 Toyota Tundra. On March 21, 2024, Erie issued an amendment to the insurance policy, titled “Declarations” (amended), in which Auto 3 was deleted from the policy, and Auto 5 (a 2024 Toyota Rav4) was added to the policy.

On April 29, 2024, Decedent was struck from behind by a motor vehicle while riding his motorcycle on the highway. He died as a result of the accident. Subsequently, Appellants made a claim for underinsured motorist (“UIM”) benefits under the Progressive policy. Progressive tendered the full UIM limit of $300,000.00. Thereafter, Appellants made a claim for stacked UIM benefits under the Erie policy.

On December 5, 2024, Appellee brought a declaratory judgment action under the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law, 75 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 1701-1799.7 (“MVFRL”). Appellee stated that it had issued a policy to Decedent, which provided $100,000.00 per person or $300,000.00 per accident in UIM coverage. Under the policy, Decedent had executed a valid stacking waiver on August 24, 2018. Further, Appellee contended that the March 21, 2024 amendment had not constituted a purchase of new coverage. Rather, despite substitutions of vehicles, the policy always covered four vehicles as well as provided for $100,000.00 per person/$300,000.00 per

accident in UIM coverage. As a result, no new stacking waiver was required. Appellee asserted that none of the four insured vehicles was involved in the accident. On that basis, Appellee sought a declaratory judgment in its favor finding that Appellants were not entitled to stacked UIM coverage under the policy, and, thus, Appellants were entitled to recover solely $100,000.00 in UIM benefits under the policy. See 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1738(c).

On January 15, 2024, Appellants filed their answer with a new matter and counterclaim, demanding that the court permit Appellants to pursue stacked UIM benefits in the amount of $400,000.00. Appellants specifically denied that the August 24, 2018, stacking waiver referenced in Appellee’s complaint was applicable to the coverages in effect at the time of the April 29, 2024 accident. Appellants contended that Appellee deleted and added vehicles to the policy from August 2018 to April 2024. Appellants further contended that, when policy changes were made on March 21, 2024, Appellee was required to offer an additional stacking waiver, and, since Appellee failed to do so, there was no valid stacking waiver in effect at the time of the accident. Accordingly, Appellants averred Appellee had an obligation to provide UIM stacked coverage of $100,000.00 per person/$300,000.00 per accident with four vehicles, thus, providing a total of $400,00.00 in UIM coverage under the policy.

In their counterclaim, Appellants alleged Appellee caused the policy to be changed in March of 2024 to provide Appellee with the greatest benefit and to the detriment of the insureds. Specifically, Appellants alleged that, in the

March 21, 2024, “Declarations” (amended) page, Appellee used the phrasing “deleting” and “adding” an auto as opposed to “substituting” an auto. As a result, Appellants insisted that Appellee was required to obtain a stacking waiver when the March 21, 2024 policy changes were made, and that the named insureds did not execute such a waiver. Appellants alleged that due to this failure, Appellee had an obligation to provide UIM stacked coverage. Thus, Appellants sought a declaratory judgment in their favor and against Appellee.

On February 21, 2025, Appellee filed a reply to the new matter and counterclaim. While Appellee admitted that an amendment had been made to the policy, it expressly denied that it had caused or unilaterally chose to amend the policy. Rather, Appellants had requested the deletion and addition of vehicles, as well as decided the type and amount of coverage under the policy. Thus, the amendment did not constitute a purchase of new coverage under Subsection 1738(c) of the MVFRL, since the number of vehicles and the amount of UIM coverage for each vehicle insured under the policy remained the same.

On May 23, 2025, Appellee filed a motion for summary judgment, essentially reiterating its prior assertions that the August 24, 2018 stacking waiver remained in place at the time of the accident. At the time of the waiver, the policy insured four vehicles, and at the time of the March 21, 2024 amendment, it continued to insure four vehicles. Appellee averred there was no dispute that Appellee did not charge a premium for a fifth vehicle, and the

UM/UIM coverage remained the same prior to and after the March 21, 2024, “Declarations” (amended). Appellee contended that Subsection 1738(c) of the MVFRL states that when purchasing uninsured (“UM”) or UIM coverage for more than one vehicle under a policy, the named insured shall be provided the opportunity to waive the stacked limits of coverage. However, because Decedent did not purchase coverage during the 2024 amendment, Appellee had no obligation to provide the insureds with new stacking waivers. Accordingly, Appellee averred there was no genuine issue of material fact, and, as a matter of law, Appellants were entitled to solely $100,000.00 in UIM coverage.

That same day, Appellee filed a motion for protective order, claiming that it had produced a full and complete response to Appellants’ interrogatories, but Appellants had served Appellee with a letter of deficiency seeking specific, supplemental written discovery. Appellee contended the additional discovery requests sought confidential, proprietary business information concerning Appellee’s internal business practices, training protocols, unrelated underwriting materials, and internal discussions within Appellee. Appellee sought to preclude Appellants from pursuing “oppressive discovery that [was] irrelevant” to the claims at issue in the case. (See Motion for Protective Order, 5/23/25, at 5).

On June 12, 2025, Appellants filed a response in opposition to the motion for protective order. Appellants averred the discovery requests were made in good faith and within the parameters of allowable discovery.

Specifically, Appellants averred they sought information regarding why Appellee “chose to amend the policy by deleting a vehicle and then adding a vehicle, when its prior amendment practices were to simply replace an existing auto.” (See Appellants’ Response, 6/12/25, at 2).

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Erie Insurance Exchange v. Beutler, S., (Pa. Ct. App. 2026).

Erie Insurance Exchange v. Beutler, S. (Erie Insurance Exchange v. Beutler, S.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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