Herren v. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co.

2001 OK CIV APP 82, 26 P.3d 120, 72 O.B.A.J. 2186, 2001 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 53, 2001 WL 744126
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 25, 2001
Docket95,532
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2001 OK CIV APP 82 (Herren v. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herren v. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co., 2001 OK CIV APP 82, 26 P.3d 120, 72 O.B.A.J. 2186, 2001 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 53, 2001 WL 744126 (Okla. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

HANSEN, Chief Judge:

11 In this action seeking recovery pursuant to uninsured/underingsured insurance coverage, Appellants, Joyce and Deryl Herren (Herrens), appeal from summary judgment granted in favor of Appellees, Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (Farm Bureau) and American Family Insurance Group (American Family). Counter-Appellant *121 Farm Bureau appeals from the trial court's order denying its motion for summary judgment based on claimed lack of jurisdiction.

12 This litigation arises from injuries Joyce Herren sustained in a vehicle accident near Miami, Oklahoma. Dery! Herren claims derivative damages for loss of services, companionship and consortium. Joyce Herren settled with the tortfeasor's insurance company for $25,000.00, the policy liability limits. The parties agree her damages exceed $150,000.00, the combined limits of the liability coverage and all uninsured motorist coverage, if applicable. At the time of the accident, Joyce Herren was an insured under a motorist policy issued to her by American Family and four Farm Bureau policies issued to her husband and Co-Appellant, Deryl Herren.

T3 The American Family policy was issued in Missouri while Joyce Herren was living there. The Farm Bureau policies were issued in Kansas to Dery! Herren at the time he was a Kansas resident. Before any of the policies were due for renewal, Herrens moved to Oklahoma and the accident occurred. Both insurance companies, applying the law of the respective states in which the policies were written, denied Herrens' claims.

T4 Under the terms of American Family's Missouri policy, uninsured motorist coverage is available only if the third party tortfeasor has no liability coverage, or liability coverage with limits less than the minimum required by the financial responsibility laws of the state in which the vehicle is garaged. Here, the tortfeasor had liability coverage which met the minimum requirement.

15 The Farm Bureau Kansas policies provide underinsured coverage, but only where the third party's liability coverage is less than the uninsured coverage of the policy. Farm Bureau, citing State Farm Mut. Auto. Inc. Co. v. Cummings, 13 Kan.App.2d 630, 778 P.2d 370 (1989), asserts that under Kansas law, policy limits cannot be "stacked." That is, policy limits may not be added or combined, regardless of the number of vehicles involved or total amount of coverage for all the vehicles listed under a policy, to determine the limit of coverage. Farm Bureau denied coverage because the tortfeasor's liability limits were equal to policy limits on each of its policies issued to Dery! Herren.

T6 Family denied their claims, Herrens initiated this action against them seeking recovery under uninsured/underinsured coverage. Farm Bureau answered and asserted a number of affirmative defenses, including, inter alia, lack of personal jurisdiction, insufficiency of process, improper venue, and failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. American Family also answered, and shortly thereafter moved to dismiss, citing as reasons the foregoing four affirmative defenses asserted by Farm Bureau. Farm Bureau subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction, insufficient service and venue.

T7 The trial court denied Farm Bureau's motion for summary judgment based on jurisdictional grounds. Farm Bureau then petitioned the Oklahoma Supreme Court to assume original jurisdiction for issuance of a writ of prohibition to prevent the trial court from exercising personal jurisdiction. The Supreme Court denied the writ.

18 After Herrens moved for summary judgment on choice-oflaw and coverage issues, and both Appellees filed counter-motions for summary judgment, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of both Appellee insurance companies. Herrens position was, and is, that under Oklahoma choice-of-law rules, Oklahoma law regarding underinsured coverage should be applied rather than the law of the state of policy issuance. Under Herrens' theory, the policy provisions upon which coverage was denied would be found contrary to Oklahoma's public policy and therefore legally unenforceable. Oklahoma law would allow underinsured motorist recovery against both insurers.

~ 19 The trial court found that under Bohannan v. Allstate Ins. Co., 1991 OK 64, 820 P.2d 787, the laws of the states in which the insurance policies were sold should govern, and consequently, no uninsured coverage was available. In its counter-motion, Farm Bureau also reiterated its personal jurisdictional arguments, but the trial *122 court did not expressly rule on this issue in its final order. Herrens appeal from summary judgment in favor of Appellees, and Farm Bureau appeals contesting personal jurisdiction.

$10 Summary judgment is appropriate where it appears there is no substantial controversy as to any material fact, and that a party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. First State Bank v. Diamond Plastics, 1995 OK 21, 891 P.2d 1262 (Okla.1995). All inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts will be reviewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion for summary judgment. First State Bank v. Diamond Plastics, at 1266.

T11 Herrens list four propositions of alleged trial court error, but the first three are essentially subsumed into the last, which contends the trial court erred in "granting summary judgment to Farm Bureau and American Family when exceptions to the lex loct contractus rule apply in this ease involy-ing Oklahoma residents' uninsured-motorist coverage."

1 12 The lex loci contractus rule is ".. used sometimes to denote the law of the place where the contract was made, and at other times to denote the law by which the contract is to be governed (ie place of its performance)" Black's Law Dictionary 911 (6th ed.1990). The rule is codified in Oklahoma law at 15 0.8.1991 § 162:

A contract is to be interpreted according to the law and usage of the place where it is to be performed, or, if it does not indicate a place of performance, according to the law and usage of the place where it is made.

113 Our Supreme Court considered the application of § 162 to motor vehicle litigation in Bohannan v. Allstate Ins. Co., 820 P.2d at 795. In Bohannan, a California resident was injured as a passenger in an Oklahoma vehicle accident. The issue was whether the law of Oklahoma or California determined the effect of the uninsured motorist provisions in the passenger's California vehicle insurance policy. The Bohannan Court adopted the following rule in motor vehicle insurance cases involving conflicting state laws:

The validity, interpretation, application and effect of the provisions of a motor vehicle insurance contract should be determined in accordance with the laws of the state in which the contract was made, unless those provisions are contrary to the public policy of Oklahoma, or unless the facts demonstrate that another jurisdiction has the most significant relationship with the subject matter and the parties.

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Bluebook (online)
2001 OK CIV APP 82, 26 P.3d 120, 72 O.B.A.J. 2186, 2001 Okla. Civ. App. LEXIS 53, 2001 WL 744126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herren-v-farm-bureau-mutual-insurance-co-oklacivapp-2001.