N.C. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Herring

CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedDecember 15, 2023
Docket227A22
StatusPublished

This text of N.C. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Herring (N.C. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Herring) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
N.C. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Herring, (N.C. 2023).

Opinion

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA

No. 227A22

Filed 15 December 2023

NORTH CAROLINA FARM BUREAU MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, INC.

v. CASSIE HERRING and CURTIS LEE TURMAN and RUTH HERRING

Appeal pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of

the Court of Appeals, 284 N.C. App. 334 (2022), affirming an order entered on 15

October 2021 by Judge G. Bryan Collins in Superior Court, Wake County. Heard in

the Supreme Court on 14 September 2023.

Haywood, Denny & Miller, LLP, by Robert E. Levin and Frank W. Bullock, III, for plaintiff-appellant.

Martin & Jones, PLLC, by Huntington M. Willis for defendant-appellees.

ALLEN, Justice.

In upholding the trial court’s order granting summary judgment for

defendants, the Court of Appeals determined that defendant Cassie Herring (Cassie)

resides with her mother and stepfather and thus qualifies for benefits under their

automobile insurance policy. Because the evidence raises genuine issues of material

fact about Cassie’s residency, we reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and

remand this case for further proceedings.

-1- N.C. FARM BUREAU MUT. INS. CO. V. HERRING

Opinion of the Court

On 19 April 2019, Cassie was injured in a two-automobile collision in the Town

of Wendell in Wake County while riding with her father, Franklin Herring, in his

vehicle. The accident left Cassie with fractured ribs, injuries to her face and jaw, and

a shattered knee. The driver of the other car was insured, and her insurance company

ultimately tendered $100,000.00—the policy’s limit per individual—to Cassie.

Cassie’s mother, defendant Ruth Herring, and stepfather, defendant Curtis

Lee Turman, maintained a personal automobile policy issued by plaintiff North

Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (Farm Bureau) for the period of

22 February 2019 to 22 August 2019. The policy included underinsured motorist

(UIM) coverage of up to $100,000.00 per person payable to “an insured [who] is legally

entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an underinsured motor vehicle

because of . . . bodily injury sustained by an insured and caused by an accident.” The

policy defined “insured” to include “any family member” of the named insureds (Ruth

Herring and Curtis Lee Turman) and defined “family member” as “a person related

to [a named insured] by blood, marriage or adoption who is a resident of [the named

insured’s] household.” The policy did not define the term “resident.”

On 26 May 2020, Cassie filed a lawsuit in the Superior Court, Wake County,

seeking benefits under the Farm Bureau policy’s UIM coverage. On 12 August 2020,

the trial court entered a consent order staying the lawsuit so that the parties could

participate in arbitration.

-2- N.C. FARM BUREAU MUT. INS. CO. V. HERRING

Prior to arbitration, and with her legal counsel in attendance, Cassie disclosed

the following information while testifying under oath in an examination conducted

by Farm Bureau’s legal counsel. Afflicted by anxiety and bipolar disorder, Cassie was

unemployed at the time of her accident and had worked only sporadically since

graduating from high school in 2003. Her parents divorced in 2006, after which Cassie

and her father lived alone in the Town of Knightdale in Wake County for about ten

years. She and her father then moved to her father’s current home near the border of

Wake and Johnston Counties. Cassie gave her father’s address as her home address

when obtaining a driver’s license and registering to vote. She received all her mail,

including bank statements and bills, at her father’s address. Cassie used her father’s

address when purchasing her car and paying property taxes on the car. She saw a

doctor and a dentist whose offices were located within a few miles of her father’s

home.

In 2007 Cassie’s mother and stepfather took up residence in Bahama, an

unincorporated community in Durham County. During the approximately five-year

period between her move to her father’s present home and the accident, Cassie would

travel to her mother’s home a couple of times each week. She sometimes visited for

the day, but other times she stayed overnight. Cassie had a room at her mother’s

house and occasionally kept clothes there. She could not specify how many times per

month she stayed overnight at her mother’s home in 2019, though Cassie estimated

that “all of the days” she spent there that year “probably” equaled roughly four

-3- N.C. FARM BUREAU MUT. INS. CO. V. HERRING

months. When asked whether her mother supported her financially, Cassie

responded, “My mom is on disability.” She later added, though, that she was on her

mother’s cell phone plan. Cassie denied receiving any mail at her mother’s home in

2019 or using her mother’s address for any official correspondence.

On 2 December 2020, several days before the scheduled arbitration, Farm

Bureau filed this action in the Superior Court, Wake County, seeking a judicial

declaration that Cassie was not entitled to UIM coverage because, at the time of the

accident, she lived with her father and “was not a resident of the household of Curtis

Lee Turman and Ruth Herring.” Farm Bureau subsequently filed a motion for

summary judgment on its declaratory judgment claim based on Cassie’s testimony.

Defendants responded with their own summary judgment motion, supported

by affidavits executed by defendants and Cassie’s father. Each affidavit asserted that

Cassie maintained a split residence, dividing her time between her father’s home and

the home of her mother and stepfather. The affidavits alleged that long-term severe

depression and anxiety disorder have impaired Cassie’s ability to live independently.

In their affidavits, Cassie’s mother and stepfather further alleged that Cassie was

listed as a driver on their automobile insurance policy and that she stored items at

her mother’s home, including “items of daily living such as clothing, toiletries, and

bedding.” All four affidavits claimed that Cassie “routinely” received mail at her

mother’s address.

-4- N.C. FARM BUREAU MUT. INS. CO. V. HERRING

On 15 October 2021, the trial court entered an order denying Farm Bureau’s

motion for summary judgment but granting defendants’ motion. Farm Bureau timely

appealed.

A divided panel of the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s order. N.C.

Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Herring, 284 N.C. App. 334, 339 (2022). The majority

“examine[d] the record to determine if, under any reasonable construction of the term,

[Cassie] may be considered a ‘resident’ of her mother’s household” and concluded that

“at the very least” Cassie could establish that she maintained a split residency

between the two homes. Id. at 338. The dissenting judge would have held that

summary judgment was inappropriate because a genuine issue of fact existed as to

whether Cassie was a resident of her mother’s home. Id. at 343 (Dillon, J., dissenting).

The dissenting judge argued that certain statements in Cassie’s testimony could lead

a jury to find that Cassie “is part of her father’s household and merely visits her

mother.” Id. at 342–43.

On 26 July 2022, Farm Bureau filed a notice of appeal with this Court based

on the dissent in the Court of Appeals. Although it has since been repealed, N.C.G.S.

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