Porter v. Buck

137 F. Supp. 3d 890, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132083, 2015 WL 5708900
District Court, W.D. Virginia·Decided September 28, 2015·No. Civil Action No. 7:14CV00176·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

[892] MEMORANDUM OPINION

GLEN E. CONRAD, Chief Judge.

Abigail Porter filed this declaratory judgment action against The Peninsula Insurance Company (“Peninsula”), seeking a declaration that the injuries she sustained as a passenger on an underinsured all-terrain vehicle were covered under the uninsured/underinsured motorist endorsement to an insurance policy issued by Peninsula. On February 24, 2015, the court denied Peninsula’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. The case is now before the court on Peninsula’s motion for reconsideration of that decision and the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, Peninsula’s motions will be denied and Porter’s motion for summary judgment will be granted.

Background

On July 28, 2012, Porter was seriously injured in an accident involving two all-terrain vehicles (“ATVs”). The Kawasaki four-wheeled ATV on which Porter was riding as a passenger was owned and operated by Jacob Cecil Buck. The second ATV was operated by Patrick Thomason. The accident occurred while the ATVs were being operated on a public roadway in Franklin County, Virginia. As a result of the accident, Porter sustained a catastrophic brain injury, causing her to incur over $590,000.00 in medical expenses. She filed a personal injury action against Buck and Thomason in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, which remains pending.

At the time of the accident, Buck’s ATV was insured under a liability policy issued by Foremost Insurance Company. Buck’s policy provided $25,000.00 in bodily injury coverage applicable to his operation and use of the ATV. Because Porter’s medical expenses exceed the liability coverage provided under Buck’s policy, Porter sought payment from Peninsula based on the uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage (“UM/UIM coverage”) provided in an endorsement (“the Endorsement”) to a commercial automobile insurance policy issued to her father, Steve L. Porter (“the Policy”).

The Endorsement at issue provides as follows:

“We” will pay in accordance with the Virginia Uninsured Motorists Law, all sums the “insured” is legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an “uninsured motor vehicle.”

Endorsement, Docket No. 1-1 at 39.

Part D of the Endorsement defines who is insured under the Endorsement. Part D provides as follows:

Who Is Insured
1. “You” or any “family member”
2. Anyone else “occupying” a “covered auto”
3. Anyone for damages he or she is entitled to recover because of “bodily injury” to which this coverage applies, sustained by another “insured” under 1 or 2 above.

Id.

The Endorsement defines the term “uninsured motor vehicle” to include “a motor vehicle ... [wjhich is an ‘underin-sured motor vehicle.’ ” Endorsement 1, Docket No. 1-1 at 38. The term “underin-sured vehicle” is defined as follows:

“Underinsured motor vehicle” means a motor vehicle, when, and to the extent that, the total amount of “bodily injury” and “property damage” coverage applicable to the operation or use of the motor vehicle and “available for payment” for such “bodily injury” or “property damage[,”] including all bonds or deposits of money or securities made pursuant to Article 15 (Section 46.2-435 et seq) of Chapter 3 of Title 46.2 of the [893] Code of Virginia, is less than the total amount of uninsured motorist coverage afforded any person injured as a result of the operation or use of the motor vehicle.

Id. The term “motor vehicle” is not defined in the Endorsement.

Peninsula denied Porter’s claim for UM/ UIM coverage. To resolve the coverage dispute, Porter filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, seeking a declaratory judgment that the UM/UIM coverage provided in the Endorsement is applicable to the injuries she sustained in the ATV accident.

Peninsula removed the action to this court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, and then moved, for judgment on the pleadings under Rule 12(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In seeking judgment on the pleadings, Peninsula argued that an ATV is not a “motor vehicle” and, thus, that Buck’s ATV is not an “uninsured motor vehicle” within the terms of the Endorsement. See Peninsula’s Reply Br., Docket No. 23 at 2 (emphasizing that the “single, determinative 'question that the Motion[ ] asks the Court to decide” is whether “the Buck ATV [is] a motor vehicle, particularly as that term is used in the Insurance Contract’s UM/UIM endorsement”).

On February 24, 2015, the court denied Peninsula’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. See Porter v. Buck, No. 7:14CV00176, 2015 WL 788881, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21815 (W.D.Va. Feb. 24, 2015). In so doing; the. court rejected Peninsula’s argument that the term “motor vehicle” must be considered in conjunction with the term “auto,” which is defined in another section of the Policy to exclude vehicles that are not designed principally for use on public roads. The court emphasized that the Endorsement specifically states that it “CHANGES THE POLICY,” and that it includes words or phrases that have special meaning for purposes of the Endorsement. The court noted that the coverage provided under the Endorsement is not limited to damages resulting from the operation of ■ an uninsured or underinsured “auto,” and that Peninsula instead used the broader term “motor vehicle.”

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Porter v. Buck, 137 F. Supp. 3d 890, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132083, 2015 WL 5708900 (W.D. Va. 2015).

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