Linderer v. Royal Globe Insurance Co.

597 S.W.2d 656, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2461
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 5, 1980
Docket39866, 39880
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 597 S.W.2d 656 (Linderer v. Royal Globe Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Linderer v. Royal Globe Insurance Co., 597 S.W.2d 656, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2461 (Mo. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinions

SNYDER, Presiding Judge.

Plaintiff Rudolph Linderer sued defendants, Royal Globe Insurance Company and Millers Mutual Insurance Association of Illinois, for recovery under policies insuring him against damages caused by a collision with an uninsured motorist. At the time of the accident on June 1, 1975, Linderer was an employee of the Union Electric Company and was driving a vehicle owned by Union ■Electric. Royal Globe was the insurer of Union Electric’s fleet of 1,420 motor vehicles. The policy included uninsured motorist coverage on each of the fleet vehicles in the amounts of $10,000 per person and $20,-000 per accident, the minimum amounts required by statute. § 379.203, RSMo 1969, as amended.1 Union Electric was the named insured of this policy, but coverage was provided for those occupying the vehicles. Union Electric paid a premium of $5 per vehicle for the uninsured motorist coverage furnished by Royal Globe.

Linderer was the named insured in a Millers Mutual automobile liability policy which insured two automobiles owned by Linderer. The policy provided for uninsured motorist coverage for each automobile and specified a single limit of $20,000 for each accident. Separate premiums were charged for each vehicle.

Each appellant filed a separate motion to reduce the prayer of the petition. The motions were based on policy provisions limiting recoveries under the uninsured motorist clauses to $20,000 for Millers Mutual and $10,000 for Royal Globe. The motions were denied.

The ease was tried to a jury which returned a single verdict against both defendants in the amount of $200,000. The trial court apportioned the damages by awarding $160,000 against Royal Globe and $40,000 against Millers Mutual. The trial court thus permitted “stacking” of the coverages in both policies. That is, the court allowed the individual coverages for all the automobiles insured under a policy to be used to pay for damages for personal injuries incurred in a collision between a single insured automobile and another driven by an uninsured motorist. Both insurers appealed from that judgment. Millers Mutual’s motion to consolidate the appeals was granted.

Royal Globe’s appeal will be considered first. Part twelve of the Royal Globe policy describes the persons insured by the uninsured motorist portion:

“I. COVERAGE U-UNINSURED MOTORISTS
(Damages for Bodily Injury)
The company will pay all sums which the insured or his legal representative shall be legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured highway vehicle because of bodily injury sustained by the insured caused by accident and arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of such uninsured highway vehicle;
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II. PERSONS INSURED
Each of the following is an insured under this insurance to the extent set forth below:
(a) The named insured and any designated insured and while residents of the same household, the spouse and relatives of either;
(b) Any other person while occupying an insured highway vehicle; and
(c) Any person, with respect to damages he is entitled to recover because of bodily injury to which this insurance applies sustained by an insured under (a) or (b) above.
[658]*658The insurance applies separately with respect to each insured, except with respect to the limits of the company’s liability.
III. LIMITS OF LIABILITY
Regardless of the number of (1) persons or organizations who are insureds under this policy, (2) persons who sustain bodily injury, (3) claims made or suits brought on account of bodily injury, or (4) highway vehicles to which this policy applies;
(a) The limit of liability stated in the schedule as applicable to ‘each person’ is the limit of the company’s liability for all damages because of bodily injury sustained by 1 person as the result of any one accident. . . . ”

Royal Globe asserts it was error for the trial court to permit stacking and to refuse to give effect to the limiting clause of the policy. In support of this contention Royal Globe urges that stacking should be required only for a person who is a named insured under a policy, and not for one who is insured merely by reason of his occupancy of an insured vehicle.

The Missouri courts have not addressed the issue of stacking of uninsured motorist coverage for an occupancy insured under a fleet policy such as the one held by Union Electric. They have, however, dealt with the issue of stacking by named insureds. The decisions concerning stacking have been based on Missouri’s uninsured motorist statute, § 379.203.2 See: Hart, Stacking of Motor Vehicle Insurance Coverage in Missouri 2x (The Deep Pocket) (pts. 1 — 2), 35 Mo.Bar J. No. 3, page 173, No. 4, page 245 (1979).

In Steinhaeufel v. Reliance Insurance Companies, 495 S.W.2d 463 (Mo.App.1973), the court was confronted with the issue of the validity of an excess insurance clause which provided that the insurer would be liable only for the excess amount it insured over other insurance primarily available. The plaintiff was injured by an uninsured motorist while driving his employer’s automobile. He suffered damages in the amount of $15,000. The employer’s insurer paid $10,000, the limit of its policy, but plaintiff’s insurer refused to pay the balance, relying on the excess insurance clause in its policy which also was limited to $10,-000. The trial court ruled in favor of plaintiff’s insurer. The court of appeals reversed, holding that the excess clause was against the public policy expressed in § 379.203 which mandates the inclusion of uninsured motorist coverage in all liability policies. This allowed the insured to claim both on his employer’s insurance on the vehicle he was driving at the time of the accident and on his personal coverage up to the amount of his total damages. This decision did not permit stacking as the term is used. There were two separate insureds and two separate policies. The court simply voided the excess insurance clause because to give effect to the excess clause would have taken away the uninsured motorist coverage required by statute.

Stacking was not permitted in Automobile Club Inter-Insur. Exch. v. Diebold, 511 S.W.2d 135 (Mo.App.1974). Diebold was injured by an uninsured motorist when driving a vehicle not owned by him. His single policy insured two automobiles owned by Diebold who paid a separate premium for uninsured motorist coverage on each. The policy contained a clause limiting the insurer’s liability for one accident to the coverage on one vehicle. The court of appeals held the minimum uninsured motorist coverage requirement of the statute applied only to each policy, and, as the insured held only one policy, the insurer could limit its coverage.

[659]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
597 S.W.2d 656, 1980 Mo. App. LEXIS 2461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/linderer-v-royal-globe-insurance-co-moctapp-1980.