Reaves v. Farm Bureau, Town & Country Insurance Co. of Missouri

706 S.W.2d 911, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 3840
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided March 18, 1986·No. No. WD 37063·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

PRITCHARD, Presiding Judge.

The issue here is whether, under the facts and a policy provision, Paul Reaves was covered under an uninsured motorist provision of respondent’s policy of automobile insurance issued to Russell and Janane Brink, on a 1967 Ford pickup which Reaves had borrowed from them.

The facts were stipulated. The Brinks manage and reside at the Liberty Village Mobile Home Park at the junction of Highways 33 and 69 in Liberty, Missouri. Reaves resided with the Brinks but was not their relative. On December 2, 1983, Reaves was using the 1967 Ford pickup with Brinks’ permission, and in the late night hours of that day, just south of the intersection of Highways 169 and 291, it became inoperable despite Reaves’ attempts to repair it. Reaves then decided to walk to what he thought was the nearest pay telephone to call the Brinks for help. He walked south on 169 Highway to 108th Street, along which he proceeded to North Oak Trafficway on which he continued south. About two miles from the point where the pickup broke down, Reaves was hit and injured, as he was walking, by a 1978 Dodge Colt, being driven by Rhonda Hunter, who was uninsured at the time.

Respondent’s policy issued to the Brinks provided coverage for “II — Automobile Liability Insurance (bodily injury and property damage liability for other persons) and defined as persons insured in paragraph 4(a)(2) any other person using such automobile with the permission of the named insured or his spouse, provided his actual operation or (if he is not operating) his other actual use thereof is within the scope of such permission, and * *

Under Section IV of the policy, “Uninsured Motorists Insurance”, paragraph 2. “ ‘Insured’ means: (a) The named insured, his spouse and any relative; (b) Any other person while occupying an insured automobile; * * Under Section I, Definitions, “7. Occupuying-means in or upon, entering into or alighting from.”

An identical provision to paragraph 2.(b) above was construed in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Farmers Insurance Co., 569 S.W.2d 384, 385[1] (Mo.App.1978). It was there said, “In all of the cases with which we are concerned, the claimant has left the driver or passenger section of the vehicle and is injured while in some reasonably close proximity to the vehicle. The first category of cases are those in which the reason for leaving the vehicle and the claimant’s activities after leaving the vehicle are directly related to the insured vehicle itself.” The State Farm case held that there was no uninsured motorist coverage because his reason for leaving the vehicle to assist another motorist was unrelated to the vehicle itself, the facts falling in the second category.

Each of the cases cited in footnote 2 has been examined, and in each the claimant was in close proximity to the insured vehicle at the time of injury, as the State Farm court says.

In Wolf v. American Cas. Co. of Reading, Pa., 2 Ill.App.2d 124, 118 N.E.2d 777 (1954), a medical expense payment case, insured was out of his automobile, which was involved in a collision, to exchange information at the curb with the driver of the other vehicle when he was struck by a third vehicle, while reaching for a pencil in his own car. In Motor Vehicle Accident Indemnification Corp. v. Oppedisano, 41 Misc.2d 1029, 246 N.Y.S.2d 879 (N.Y.Sup.[913]*9131964), insured was out of his vehicle attempting to release it after he had skidded into high snow, when he was struck by an unidentified hit-and-run driver. In Lokos v. New Amsterdam Casualty Co., 197 Misc. 40, 93 N.Y.S.2d 825 (N.Y.Mun.Ct.1949), insured driver had made an emergency stop to tie on a bumper which had fallen to the pavement. As he leaned over the automobile with the bumper in his hands, he was injured. Held, that he was “upon” the car so that medical payments were payable. Another medical payments provision was held applicable in Christoffer v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 123 Cal.App.2d Supp. 979, 267 P.2d 887 (1954), where insured (a permissive user) was struck by an automobile while changing a wheel on the covered vehicle, being in contact with it. The last case cited in State Farm, supra, is Green v. Farm Bureau Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 139 W.Va. 475, 80 S.E.2d 424 (1954), holding that a medical payment provision did not extend to an insured who was changing a tire and the automobile jack slipped and fell on his arm.

In this case, Reaves’ injury did not occur while he was in proximity with the stalled insured automobile. Although it could be said that his reason for leaving the vehicle was directly related to its breakdown, and for the purpose of securing help, his occupancy of it had ceased. He was two miles away when he was struck by the uninsured vehicle, an incident entirely unrelated to his previous occupancy or use of the broken-down Ford pickup.

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Reaves v. Farm Bureau, Town & Country Insurance Co. of Missouri, 706 S.W.2d 911, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 3840 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

706 S.W.2d 911 (Reaves v. Farm Bureau, Town & Country Insurance Co. of Missouri) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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