NATIONWIDE MUT. FIRE INS. v. Phillips

609 So. 2d 1385, 1992 WL 338535
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedNovember 18, 1992
Docket92-270
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 609 So. 2d 1385 (NATIONWIDE MUT. FIRE INS. v. Phillips) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NATIONWIDE MUT. FIRE INS. v. Phillips, 609 So. 2d 1385, 1992 WL 338535 (Fla. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

609 So.2d 1385 (1992)

NATIONWIDE MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant,
v.
Kevin PHILLIPS and Kimberly Phillips f/k/a Kimberly Scanato, Appellees.

No. 92-270.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.

November 18, 1992.
Certification Denied December 14, 1992.

*1386 George A. Vaka of Fowler, White, Gillen, Boggs, Villareal & Banker, P.A., Tampa, for appellant.

Paul B. Irvin of Troutman, Williams, Irvin & Green, P.A., Winter Park, for appellees.

COBB, Judge.

The issue on appeal concerns whether a Class I insured is entitled to uninsured motorist ("UM") coverage even if he would not have been entitled to liability coverage had the accident in question been his fault. Class I insureds are the named insured, his or her spouse, and relatives of the same household, all of whom are covered by uninsured motorist family protection even when the insured automobile is not involved in the accident from which the injuries arose. Mullis v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 252 So.2d 229, 237 (Fla. 1971).

Appellee Kimberly Phillips is the policyholder of the car insurance policy in question. Her husband, appellee Kevin Phillips, also is entitled to certain coverage under this policy as Kimberly Phillips's spouse and a resident of her household. According to the declaratory judgment action filed in this case, on September 28, 1990, Kevin Phillips was riding a motorcycle owned by him when he was injured by the negligence of an uninsured motorist. Kevin Phillips timely made a claim against appellant Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company ("Nationwide") pursuant to his wife's policy (the "policy").

The policy provided liability coverage as follows:

Under this coverage, if you become legally obligated to pay damages resulting from the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of your auto, we will pay for such damages. Anyone living in your household has this protection.

The policy defined "you" as "the policyholder first named in the attached Declarations," including "that policyholder's spouse if living in the same household." The policy defined "your auto" as "the vehicle or vehicles described in the attached Declarations." The only vehicle described in the declarations was Kimberly Phillips's Chevette.

The UM section of the policy contains the following exclusion:

This Uninsured Motorists insurance does not apply as follows: 4. It does not apply to bodily injury suffered while occupying a motor vehicle owned by you or a relative living in your household, but not insured for Uninsured Motorists coverage under this policy... .

Nationwide declined coverage, claiming that because Kevin Phillips owned the motorcycle, which was not insured under the policy, the exclusion was applicable. The Phillipses then filed a declaratory judgment action. In response to their subsequent *1387 request for admissions, Nationwide admitted that it did not obtain a signed form from Kimberly Phillips acknowledging acceptance of the limited UM coverage. Kimberly Phillips also filed an affidavit stating that, prior to her husband's accident, she was never informed of any UM coverage limitations nor did she sign any form in which she agreed to such limitations. Ultimately, the parties filed cross motions for summary judgment.

The trial court granted the Phillipses' motion and denied Nationwide's. In doing so, the court found that Kevin Phillips was a Class I insured under the Nationwide policy at the time of his motorcycle accident and therefore was entitled to uninsured motorist coverage based on Mullis v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 252 So.2d 229 (Fla. 1971) and other cases. Nationwide has appealed this order.

Any discussion of UM exclusions in Florida must begin with Mullis.[1] The classic and oft-quoted rule of law from Mullis is:

[A] member of the first class [of insureds] ... is covered by uninsured motorist liability protection issued pursuant to Section 627.0851 whenever or wherever bodily injury is inflicted upon him by the negligence of an uninsured motorist. He would be covered thereby whenever he is injured while walking, or while riding in motor vehicles, or in public conveyances, including uninsured motorist vehicles (including Honda motorcycles) owned by a member of the first class of insureds. Neither can an insured family member be excluded from such protection because of age, sex, or color of hair. Any other conclusion would be inconsistent with the intention of Section 627.0851. It was enacted to provide relief to innocent persons who were injured through the negligence of an uninsured motorist; it is not to be "whittled away" by exclusions and exceptions.

Mullis at 238. There can be no question that the supreme court interpreted section 627.0851[2] to provide UM coverage to Class I insureds "whenever or wherever" they suffer bodily injury as a result of an uninsured motorist, without regard to whether liability coverage would have been available for the particular accident from which the injury arose. The Mullis court also made it clear that UM coverage exclusions would not be permitted.

Nationwide contends that Mullis has been overruled, sub silentio, by the recent Florida Supreme Court case of Valiant Ins. Co. v. Webster, 567 So.2d 408 (Fla. 1990), and that, under the new rule announced by the court, an insured is not entitled to UM coverage if liability coverage under the same policy would not apply to the particular accident in question. Because the issue in Valiant was UM coverage for a survivor's claim in a wrongful death action, the language Nationwide relies upon was not necessary to the holding. The problem in Valiant was that the person injured was not an insured and the person insured received no bodily injury. In contrast, Kevin Phillips, as a resident relative of the named insured, was a Class I insured under the Nationwide policy and did suffer bodily injury.

Despite the fact that Valiant is distinguishable from this case, the Valiant court did include the following somewhat confusing restatement of the Mullis rule of law upon which Nationwide now relies:

Since our decision in Mullis, the courts have consistently followed the principle that if the liability portions of an insurance policy would be applicable to a particular accident, the uninsured motorist provisions would likewise be applicable. Whereas, if the liability provisions did not apply to a given accident, the uninsured motorist provisions of that policy would also not apply .... (Emphasis added).

Valiant at 410. Nationwide urges that under its policy, liability coverage would *1388 not have been applicable to Kevin Phillips's accident because coverage only extends to accidents arising out of the use of Kimberly Phillips's Chevette, not Kevin Phillips's motorcycle. Because liability coverage would not have applied based on the abovequoted language, Nationwide maintains that UM coverage also is not available. The Phillipses argue that, based on Mullis, a Class I insured is entitled to UM coverage if injured by an uninsured motorist, regardless of whether liability coverage would have applied to the particular accident.

The issue presented here arises from the Valiant court's misleading use of the words "particular accident" and "given accident" in restating the Mullis rule of law. The dissent in Valiant explains the problem:

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Bluebook (online)
609 So. 2d 1385, 1992 WL 338535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nationwide-mut-fire-ins-v-phillips-fladistctapp-1992.