Kline v. Farmers Ins. Exchange

766 N.W.2d 118, 277 Neb. 874
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 5, 2009
DocketS-07-325
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 766 N.W.2d 118 (Kline v. Farmers Ins. Exchange) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kline v. Farmers Ins. Exchange, 766 N.W.2d 118, 277 Neb. 874 (Neb. 2009).

Opinion

766 N.W.2d 118 (2009)
277 Neb. 874

David KLINE and Patricia L. Kline, Appellants,
v.
FARMERS INSURANCE EXCHANGE, Appellee.

No. S-07-325.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

June 5, 2009.

*120 John C. Wieland and Kevin J. McCoy, of Dwyer, Smith, Gardner, Slusky, Lazer, Pohren & Rogers, L.L.P., Omaha, for appellants.

Daniel P. Chesire, of Lamson, Dugan & Murray, L.L.P., Omaha and Raymond E. Walden, of Walden Law Office, for appellee.

HEAVICAN, C.J., WRIGHT, CONNOLLY, GERRARD, STEPHAN, McCORMACK, and MILLER-LERMAN, JJ.

McCORMACK, J.

I. NATURE OF CASE

Farmers Insurance Exchange (Farmers) petitioned for further review the decision *121 of the Nebraska Court of Appeals finding an exclusion in its automobile insurance policy to be void as against public policy. The exclusion denies underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage when a person is injured while occupying a vehicle he or she does not own but is insured for UIM coverage under another policy. We granted Farmers' petition for further review. We affirm.

II. BACKGROUND

For the most part, the facts of this case are undisputed. On December 29, 2001, David Kline was returning from work, driving a 1985 GMC Suburban, when Donald C. Minard turned left in front of the Suburban. The vehicles collided, and, as a result of the collision, David was injured. David is the sole shareholder of "Blade Home Improvement LLC" (Blade), a Nebraska limited liability company. Blade is the titled owner of the Suburban.

The Suburban was insured through American Family Mutual Insurance Company (American Family) for collision and liability, and the policy included UIM benefits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. David and Patricia L. Kline also held a personal automobile insurance policy through Farmers providing UIM benefits of $500,000 per person and $500,000 per accident. The only vehicle listed under the Farmers' policy was the Klines' family vehicle, a 2001 Ford Windstar van.

The Klines filed suit against Minard for the injuries David sustained from the accident, and they also named as defendants Farmers and American Family. The Klines sought a determination of liability for the UIM benefits under the insurance policies and for payment under those policies. Minard's insurance company paid its policy limit of $25,000 on his behalf, and Minard was dismissed from the case. Before settling with Minard, both American Family and Farmers waived subrogation rights. American Family then paid its maximum per person coverage of $100,000 in UIM benefits and was also dismissed from the case.

The Klines thus received a total of $125,000 from the settling defendants. But the Klines assert that their damages exceeded that amount. Farmers, the sole remaining defendant, filed a motion for summary judgment. The Klines did not cross-motion for summary judgment. In support of its motion, Farmers argued that its insurance policy with the Klines contained two relevant exclusions that prohibited them from recovering. Under the UIM section, the policy stated:

This coverage does not apply to bodily injury sustained by a person:
(1) While occupying any vehicle owned by you or a family member for which insurance is not afforded under this policy or though [sic] being struck by that vehicle.
....
(4) If the injured person was occupying a vehicle you do not own which is insured for this coverage under another policy.
(Emphasis supplied.)

At the motion for summary judgment hearing, Farmers argued that if the court determined that David was actually the owner of the Suburban and not Blade, then exclusion No. 1 (hereinafter referred to as the "owned-but-not-insured" exclusion) applied, which would preclude coverage under the policy. But, if the court concluded that Blade was the owner of the Suburban and not David, then exclusion No. 4 (hereinafter referred to as the "not-owned-but-insured" exclusion) applied.

No evidence was introduced to refute that Blade was the actual owner of the *122 Suburban. To the contrary, the Klines maintained that the owned-but-not-insured exclusion was inapplicable because Blade, and not David, was the owner of the Suburban. In support of their argument, the Klines offered the American Family insurance policy listing Blade as the owner of the Suburban and they offered David's deposition testimony that Blade owned the Suburban. Farmers responded that by piercing the corporate veil, the court could conclude that David was the actual owner of the Suburban, but Farmers did not introduce any evidence to support this allegation.

The Klines' argument regarding the not-owned-but-insured exclusion was twofold. First, the Klines argued that "this coverage" as used in the not-owned-but-insured exclusion is ambiguous. They maintained that the language could refer to both the type of coverage and the amount of coverage. And since Farmers drafted the policy, the language should be construed against Farmers to mean the amount of coverage. Since the amount of the UIM coverage provided through Blade's contract with American Family was a different amount than the UIM coverage provided through Farmers' policy with the Klines, the Klines argued that the exclusion from "this coverage" did not apply.

Second, the Klines argued that even if the not-owned-but-insured exclusion was unambiguous as to what "this coverage" meant, then the exclusion violated public policy, because it allowed Farmers to deny UIM benefits whenever underinsured coverage was available in a lesser amount under another policy, preventing an insured from receiving full indemnification to the extent of the highest policy limit as mandated by Nebraska's stacking statute codified at Neb.Rev.Stat. § 44-6411 (Reissue 2004).

The district court granted Farmers' second motion for summary judgment, concluding that based on the evidence submitted by the parties, the Farmers' policy excluded coverage whether David owned the Suburban or not. The court concluded that the "this coverage" language contained in the not-owned-but-insured exclusion was not ambiguous and referred only to the type of coverage, not the amount of coverage. The court also found that the not-owned-but-insured exclusion did not violate public policy. The court then reasoned that if David owned the Suburban, then the owned-but-not-insured exclusion applied, and if he did not own the vehicle, then the not-owned-but-insured exclusion applied. The Klines timely appealed to the Court of Appeals.

In a memorandum opinion, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of Farmers and remanded the cause for further proceedings.[1] The Court of Appeals first concluded that the ownedbut-not-insured exclusion was inapplicable because Blade, not David, owned the Suburban. As to the not-owned-but-insured exclusion, the Court of Appeals agreed with the district court that the language "this coverage" was not ambiguous. However, the Court of Appeals held that the not-owned-but-insured exclusion violated public policy in circumstances such as the Klines, where the nonowned vehicle's underinsured coverage limits are less than the UIM coverage on the insured's own vehicle.

We granted Farmers' petition for further review of the Court of Appeals' decision. *123

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Bluebook (online)
766 N.W.2d 118, 277 Neb. 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kline-v-farmers-ins-exchange-neb-2009.