Harlow v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

139 So. 3d 523, 2014 WL 1613649, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1072
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 23, 2014
DocketNo. 48,676-CW
StatusPublished

This text of 139 So. 3d 523 (Harlow v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harlow v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 139 So. 3d 523, 2014 WL 1613649, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1072 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinions

BROWN, Chief Judge.

liWe granted the application of defendant, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (“State Farm”)1, who sought supervisory review of the denial of its motion for summary judgment. This is an uninsured motorist insurance coverage question that arises from a very unusual set of facts. We now affirm the trial court’s denial of State Farm’s motion for summary judgment.

Facts

On September 9, 2010, Willie Harlow was driving his BMW eastbound on Holly Springs Church Road in Coushatta, Louisiana, when he was hit head-on by a Mitsubishi automobile driven by Thomas Dixon, a relative of Harlow’s. Apparently, the Mitsubishi that Dixon was driving was owned by Harlow. The BMW was covered by an auto policy issued by State Farm. In addition to liability insurance, Harlow had uninsured motorist (“UM”) coverage on the BMW with limits of $15,000/$30,000. Dixon, the driver of the Mitsubishi, was at fault. The insurance company on the Mitsubishi (which was not State Farm) paid its policy limits to Harlow. When State Farm refused to pay Harlow under the UM provision of the policy that covered his BMW, Harlow filed suit against State Farm. He alleged that he was seriously [525]*525injured in the crash and that he had only-received $15,000 from the Mitsubishi’s liability insurance, which was not enough to satisfy his damages. Therefore, Harlow argued that the other vehicle was underin-sured, thus triggering the UM provision of the State Farm policy on the BMW. It is unclear from this record whether Harlow or [¡JDixon had obtained the insurance on the Mitsubishi. It is clear, however, that the insurance was not purchased through State Farm. In brief, Harlow states that he “was allowing Dixon to purchase the [Mitsubishi]. Dixon had his own insurance policy on the vehicle, written by Progressive Insurance Company supplying liability insurance and its own UM policy.”

State Farm answered the lawsuit with general denials of Harlow’s claims. State Farm then filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting that its policy provides no coverage for Harlow because he was the owner of the car that hit him. The State Farm policy provides:

Insuring Agreement
Under Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage, we will pay nonpunitive damages for bodily injury an insured is legally entitled to recover from the owner or driver of an uninsured motor vehicle.

The policy defines “uninsured motor vehicle” this way:

Uninsured Motor Vehicle does not include a land motor vehicle.
[[Image here]]
2. owned by, rented to, or furnished or available for the regular use of you or any resident relative.

The record in this ease consists of State Farm’s policy on the BMW and a document purporting to be from “American Driving Records, Inc.,” apparently a private database service for motor vehicle records. This record provides the following data for the Mitsubishi automobile driven by Dixon:

Registered and Legal Owner
| sReg. Owner:
WILLIE J. HARLOW
451 HOLLY SPRINGS CHURCH COUSHATTA, LA 71019
Legal Owner:
NATIONAL AUTO ACCEPTANCE 2600 BELLE CHASSE HWY 206 GRETNA, LA 70056

The trial judge denied State Farm’s motion for summary judgment. The court stated, in part:

It is argued that uninsured motorist coverage requires the insured to have coverage on each vehicle he owns that he wants uninsured motorist coverage on. The reasoning is the insurance company does not want an insured to cover only one vehicle with uninsured motorist coverage and cover him in all his owned vehicles. In this case, the second vehicle was insured by another company and there was uninsured motorist coverage on the (BMW) owned by the plaintiff. Absence of fraud, it would seem that as a matter of law the summary judgment should be denied.

State Farm timely filed its writ application in this court, which was granted and docketed.

Discussion

The application of the summary judgment rules to insurance coverage is now well-settled. The motion for summary judgment is a procedural device to avoid a full-scale trial when there is no genuine issue of material fact. The motion should be granted if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. La. C.C.P [526]*526art. 966; King v. Phelps Dunbar L.L.P., 98-1805 (La.06/04/99), 743 So.2d 181; Beck v. Burgueno, 43,557 (La.App.2d Cir.09/17/08), 996 So.2d 404.

AppeIlate review of the grant or denial of a summary judgment is de novo. Jones v. Estate of Santiago, 03-1424 (La.04/14/04), 870 So.2d 1002; Row v. Pierremont Plaza L.L.C., 35,796 (La.App.2d Cir.04/03/02), 814 So.2d 124, writ denied, 02-1262 (La.08/30/02), 823 So.2d 952.

A summary judgment may be rendered on the issue of insurance coverage alone although there is a genuine issue as to liability or the amount of damages. La. C.C.P. art. 966(E); Jie v. Certified Lloyds Plan, 34,545 (La.App.2d Cir.04/04/01), 785 So.2d 118.

An insurer seeking to avoid coverage through summary judgment bears the burden of proving that some provision or exclusion applies to preclude coverage. Alexander v. Cornett, 42, 147 (La.App.2d Cir.07/11/07), 961 So.2d 622, writ denied, 07-1681 (La.11/02/07), 966 So.2d 603.

Any exclusion from coverage in an insurance policy must be clear and unmistakable. South Central Bell Telephone Co. v. Ka-Jon Food Stores of Louisiana, Inc., 93-2926 (La.05/24/94), 644 So.2d 357. It is the duty of the insurer to clearly express exclusions or limitations in a liability policy. Little v. Kalo Laboratories, Inc., 406 So.2d 678 (La.App. 2d Cir.1981), writ denied, 410 So.2d 1133 (La.1982). Thus, any ambiguity in an exclusion should be narrowly construed in favor of coverage. Yount v. Maisano, 627 So.2d 148 (La.1993).

The Louisiana insurance statutes provide the substantive framework for this analysis. A Louisiana auto policy must include uninsured/underinsured coverage unless the insured specifically rejects that | ¿coverage. La. R.S. 22:1295.2 In this case, Harlow purchased and paid for UM coverage for his BMW, the car he was driving at the time he was injured in the accident. Under ordinary circumstances, he would plainly be entitled to the UM coverage he paid for, provided that he could prove that his losses exceeded the liability limit of the policy on the car that hit him.

The Mitsubishi is a “land motor vehicle” (which is undefined but clearly includes automobiles). Whether it is “owned” by Harlow is equivocal. The petition states Harlow’s ownership; Harlow’s brief however, asserts that Harlow was allowing Dixon to purchase the Mitsubishi. In fact, Dixon was driving the car at the time of the accident which could indicate delivery. [527]*527Who actually bought the insurance covering the Mitsubishi is unknown. In Maloney v. State Farm, Ins. Co., 583 So.2d 12 (La.App. 4th Cir.1991),

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Bluebook (online)
139 So. 3d 523, 2014 WL 1613649, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1072, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harlow-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-co-lactapp-2014.