McNally v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.

446 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43426, 2005 WL 4701406
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedDecember 29, 2005
DocketCivil Action 04-2474-CM
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 446 F. Supp. 2d 1192 (McNally v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McNally v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co., 446 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43426, 2005 WL 4701406 (D. Kan. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

MURGUIA, District Judge.

Plaintiff initially brought the instant action against State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company in the District Court of Crawford County, Kansas, on September 2, 2004. In his state court petition, plaintiff alleged breach of contract, bad faith/breach of fiduciary notice, and bad faith/breach of fiduciary duty claims arising out of an issue over the existence of uninsured motorist coverage in plaintiffs automobile insurance policy with State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company after plaintiff was involved in a motorcycle accident -with an uninsured motorist on September 2, 2002. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company removed the state court action to this court on September 28, 2004. On January 5, 2005, plaintiff filed an amended complaint adding State Farm Fire & Casualty Company as a defendant and stating that the breach of contract action arose out of a personal lines umbrella insurance policy issued by State Farm Fire & Casualty Company to plaintiff.

During the pretrial conference held on July 21, 2005, plaintiff abandoned his claims for bad faith/breach of fiduciary notice (Count II) and bad faith/breach of fiduciary duty (Count III) and stated his intent to proceed only on his breach of contract claim (Count I). Accordingly, pursuant to the pretrial order entered on August 1, 2005, plaintiffs remaining claim for determination is his breach of contract claim (Count l). 1 This matter comes before the court on defendant State Farm Fire & Casualty Company’s 2 Motions for Summary Judgment (Doc. 45). For the reasons set forth below, the court grants defendant’s Motion.

I. Facts 3

A. Plaintiffs Background

Plaintiff is an educated, experienced businessman. He received his Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, from Pittsburg State University in 1975. In approximately 1975, plaintiff completed a six-month independent study in economics in London, England, at the London School of Economics. Plaintiff has worked at Hix Corporation as a sales manager for approximately two years. Prior to working at Hix Corporation, plaintiff worked for twelve or thirteen years as the vice president and general manager of a Swedish manufacturing company named Svedala. *1194 Prior to working at Svedala, plaintiff had an ownership' interest in a family-owned company named McNally Incorporated. Plaintiff worked at McNally Incorporated for more than twenty years.

Plaintiff is currently the chairman of the board of trustees for Mt. Carmel Hospital. His responsibilities include reviewing all of the hospital’s employment and business contracts “to keep the hospital safe from litigation,” making sure the financials look good, making sure the management team is doing its job properly, reviewing any capital appropriations, and giving management advice to the management team if needed. Plaintiff has also been active in a couple of committees for the local chamber of commerce.

Plaintiff has spent many years in the business world drafting and signing contracts. In the business world, plaintiff would want to know what he was signing before he signed it. In the business world, if plaintiff read language that caused him to wonder what it said or what it meant, he would ask questions. However, in his business dealings, plaintiff has not been involved in any of the insurance purchases and has never read any of the insurance policies or dealt with the details of insurance coverage of his employers. In relation to his personal automobile insurance, plaintiff testified that he would ask the insurance agent what he needed, and how much it was going to cost, and he paid the bill. Plaintiff contends that he always trusted his insurance agent to make sure plaintiff had the right coverage.

B. Plaintiffs Insurance Policies with Defendant

During his lifetime, plaintiff has purchased several types of insurance policies from defendant, including automobile, motorcycle, and one umbrella policy.

On approximately November 10, 1988, plaintiff told his friend and insurance agent, Francis Buche, 4 that he wanted to take out an umbrella insurance policy. Buche assisted plaintiff in preparing a personal liability umbrella application with defendant. At the time of the application, plaintiff had three vehicles he owned or used for personal or business reasons: 1987 Ford Aerostar, 1980 Chevy Blazer, and a 1986 Olds.

Plaintiff and his wife were the only two drivers in plaintiffs household at the time of this application in 1988. Plaintiff knew that he was purchasing an umbrella policy with $1 million liability limits to protect him and his wife if a claim were made against them. Plaintiff does not remember any discussion with Buche or anyone at his State Farm Agency about uninsured motorist coverage at the time plaintiff took out this umbrella policy.

The only handwriting on the application that is plaintiffs is the signature. Typically, Buche would tell plaintiff where to sign, and plaintiff would sign where Buche indicated. In plaintiffs deposition, the rejection language on this application was pointed out to him:

REJECTION OF UNINSURED MOTOR VEHICLE COVERAGE In keeping with the laws of my state, I have been offered the opportunity to purchase Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage, and I hereby reject the opportunity to purchase this option as part of this application. Applicant’s Signature x_

Plaintiff did not sign this rejection of uninsured motor vehicle coverage on the application. Buche testified that when plaintiff *1195 purchased the umbrella policy in 1988, Buche would have explained uninsured motorist coverage to plaintiff at that time. The personal liability umbrella application lists the premium for “uninsured motor vehicle” as $25.00. Plaintiff paid the total premium of $130.00 shown on the application.

In November 1988, after plaintiff submitted his application, defendant issued a personal lines umbrella policy, policy number 16-B36787-2 (the “umbrella policy”), to plaintiff. The umbrella policy was a twelve-month policy which provided for automatic renewal “subject to the premiums, rules and forms in effect for each succeeding policy period.” Plaintiff received premium notices and timely paid each premium on the policy from 1988 to the present.

When issued in 1988, the umbrella policy provided two endorsements of coverage: (1) $1 million in personal liability coverage, and (2) $1 million in uninsured/underin-sured motorist coverage. Plaintiff does not have a copy of a “declarations” sheet, which he believes would have been mailed to him with this policy in 1988. Plaintiff does not have a copy of endorsement “FE-7655.1 Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage.” Plaintiff contends that, prior to this lawsuit, he had never seen or read defendant endorsement “FE-7655.1 Uninsured Motor Vehicle Coverage.” However, plaintiff testified that he was aware of what the uninsured/underinsured coverage was when he first purchased the umbrella policy:

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250 F. Supp. 3d 825 (D. Kansas, 2017)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
446 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43426, 2005 WL 4701406, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcnally-v-state-farm-fire-casualty-co-ksd-2005.