Old Guard Insurance v. Houck

801 A.2d 559, 2002 Pa. Super. 161, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1023
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMay 20, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 801 A.2d 559 (Old Guard Insurance v. Houck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Old Guard Insurance v. Houck, 801 A.2d 559, 2002 Pa. Super. 161, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1023 (Pa. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

BENDER, J.

¶ 1 Alma Houck (Appellant 1 ) appeals from the order granting Old Guard Insurance Company’s (Old Guard) motion for judgment on the pleadings in Old Guard’s declaratory judgment action against Appellant, an insured under an Old Guard automobile insurance policy. Appellant claims that the trial court erred in deter *560 mining that she was not entitled to under-insured motorist (UIM) benefits under the Old Guard policy. For the following reasons, we affirm.

¶ 2 The facts of this case are as follows:

On or about September 26, 1999, David Houck was operating a 1980 Suzuki motorcycle with his wife, Alma Houck, riding as his passenger, when they were involved in an accident with a vehicle operated by Mary Rose. Ms. Rose allegedly crossed the center line and struck the Defendants’ motorcycle, causing serious injury to Defendants. Ms. Rose was insured under a personal automobile policy issued by Allstate Insurance Company (“Allstate”) with a $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident policy limit. After an investigation into the incident, Allstate tendered its policy limit.
The Defendants had insured their motorcycle through Guide One Insurance with UIM coverage of $15,000. The Defendants also had a personal automobile policy through Old Guard Insurance Company, which included UIM coverage of $100,000 per person/$300,000 per accident with stacking on three other vehicles owned by the Defendants. After receiving the limits of Ms. Rose’s automobile insurance policy from Allstate, the Defendants filed claims for UIM coverage with Guide One and Old Guard.
Old Guard denies that there is any UIM coverage available to the Defendant as a result of an exclusion regarding UIM coverage contained in the Old Guard policy, which precludes recovery by a named insured or his/her spouse living in the same household from an accident in a motor vehicle not insured under the Old Guard policy. As a result, Old Guard filed the instant declaratory judgment action on or about April 11, 2000. Defendants then filed a response on May 15, 2000. Thereafter, Plaintiff filed a reply on September 12, 2000.

Trial Court Opinion (T.C.O.) at 2. Old Guard filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, and Appellant filed a response. Following argument on the motion, the court granted Old Guard’s motion, and Appellant then filed this appeal. She presents two questions for'our review:

1. Whether the “household vehicle” exclusion in the policy at issue applies in the instant case so as to bar recovery of underinsured motorist benefits to the Defendanb-Appellants where they had purchased and paid for the coverage which they sought to recover, albeit under a separate policy than that which covered the vehicle which they were operating at the time of the accident[?] 2. Whether Prudential Property and Casualty Ins. Co. v. Colbert, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23225 (W.D.Pa.1998), which is currently pending on appeal before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, will render the “household vehicle” exclusionary language void as against public policy and thus render this decision null and void[?]

Brief for Appellant at 4.

¶ 3 In the first question presented for our review, Appellant claims that the trial court erred in granting Old Guard’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. “Our review of a trial court’s decision to grant or deny judgment on the pleadings is limited to determining whether the trial court committed an error of law or whether there were facts presented which warranted a jury trial.... Judgment on the pleadings is proper only where the pleadings [evince] that there are no material facts in dispute such that a trial by jury would be unnecessary.” Pennsylvania Financial Responsibility Assigned Claims Plan v. *561 English, 541 Pa. 424, 664 A.2d 84, 86 (1995).

¶ 4 Appellant does not argue that the exclusion in the Old Guard policy is ambiguous. Nor does she dispute that when the exclusion is applied, it operates to deny her UIM coverage. 2 Instead, she claims that the court should not have enforced the exclusion in the Old Guard policy under the facts of this case because she was not attempting “to convert the less expensive UIM coverage into liability coverage.” Brief for Appellant at 9. She argues that the exclusion should be “declared invalid in this case,” ostensibly upon the grounds of public policy. Brief for Appellant at 8.

¶ 5 In relevant part, the exclusion in the Old Guard policy states:

EXCLUSIONS
A. We do not provide Underinsured Motorist Coverage for “bodily injury” sustained:
1. By you while “occupying,” or when struck by, any motor vehicle you own which is hot insured for this coverage under this policy....

Reproduced Record (R.R.) at 8a. Old Guard claims, and Appellant does not dispute, that the express terms of this clause precludes a claim for UIM benefits for the injuries sustained by Appellant while occupying the motorcycle because it was a motor vehicle owned by her, yet not insured under the Old Guard policy. Nonetheless, Appellant claims that the exclusion should not bar her recovery of UIM benefits because “the coverage she seeks was chosen and paid for her by her and she is not seeking to convert this coverage into liability coverage.” Brief for Appellant at 8. Appellant cites Marroquin v. Mutual Benefit Ins. Co., 404 Pa.Super. 444, 591 A.2d 290 (1991), and Paylor v. Hartford Ins. Co., 536 Pa. 583, 640 A.2d 1234 (1994), in support of this argument.

¶ 6 In Marroquin, the appellant was injured when a vehicle struck him. The appellant’s brother was driving the vehicle. The appellant’s brother owned the vehicle and insured it with Mutual Benefit Insurance Company. At the time of the accident, both the appellant and his brother resided with them parents. The parents owned two vehicles that Mutual also insured. The policy covering these vehicles included liability and UIM coverage.

¶ 7 The appellant received benefits from Mutual under the liability coverage of the policy for his brother’s vehicle. These benefits were insufficient to compensate the appellant for his injuries. As the policy that his parents carried also covered family members, the appellant then made a claim with Mutual for UIM benefits under his parents’ insurance policy. Mutual denied the claim on the basis of an exclusion that stated the following:

In addition, neither ‘uninsured motor vehicle’ nor ‘underinsured motor vehicle’ includes any vehicle or equipment:
1. Owned by or furnished or available for the regular use of you or any ‘family member.’

Marroquin, 591 A.2d at 292.

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Bluebook (online)
801 A.2d 559, 2002 Pa. Super. 161, 2002 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1023, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/old-guard-insurance-v-houck-pasuperct-2002.