Roberts v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.

113 P.3d 164, 2004 WL 2278353
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 2, 2005
Docket03CA0843
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 113 P.3d 164 (Roberts v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roberts v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 113 P.3d 164, 2004 WL 2278353 (Colo. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinions

PIERCE, J.

In this action for declaratory relief and breach of contract, plaintiffs, Randall Roberts and Cindy Roberts, appeal a trial court dismissal of their complaint on summary judgment. We affirm.

I. Background

In August 2000, plaintiffs were involved in an accident when their motorcycle collided with a pickup truck. Both plaintiffs were seriously injured.

Plaintiffs held seven insurance policies with defendants, American Family Mutual Insurance Company and American Standard [166]*166Insurance Company of Wisconsin. The American Standard policy covered the motorcycle they were riding; the remaining six policies, issued by American Family, covered their automobiles. Each of the policies provided for uninsured motorist-underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage in the amount of $100,000 per person or $300,000 per accident, but contained the following “anti-stacking” provision: “Two or more cars insured. The total limit of our liability under all policies issued to you by us shall not exceed the highest limit of liability under any one policy.”

According to the policies, both American Family and American Standard are members of “the American Family Insurance Group Madison, WI.”

Defendants paid plaintiffs the limit of the motorcycle policy, but disputed plaintiffs’ claim that they were entitled to recover additional benefits under each of their automobile policies as well.

In August 2002, plaintiffs filed a complaint. Shortly thereafter, the parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Plaintiffs argued that, while the anti-stacking provision prohibits the recovery of cumulative benefits under separate policies, that language should be ignored because (1) it is inconspicuous, (2) it is ambiguous, and (3) it conflicts with other policy provisions.

The trial court disagreed. It held that the bold title “Two or more cars insured” gives the insured clear notice as to the situations covered by the provision. The court also held that, while the language could have been clearer, it was not “ambiguous, conflicting or particularly confusing.” It found no conflict with other contractual provisions.

II. Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate only if the pleadings and supporting documents demonstrate that there is no genuine issue for trial as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. C.R.C.P. 56. The burden is on the moving party to establish that no genuine issue of fact exists, and any doubts in this regard must be resolved against the moving party. Our review is de novo. Aspen Wilderness Workshop, Inc. v. Colo. Water Conservation Bd., 901 P.2d 1251, 1256 (Colo.1995).

III. Inconspicuousness

Plaintiffs argue that the anti-stacking provision at issue here is unenforceable because it was not conspicuous. We are not persuaded.

When an insurer seeks to restrict coverage, the limitation must be clearly expressed in the policy. Tepe v. Rocky Mountain Hosp. & Med. Servs., 893 P.2d 1323, 1327 (Colo.App.1994). If an insurer does not clearly express the limitation, or if the policy provisions are inconsistent or ambiguous, the contract must be construed in favor of coverage and against the limitation. Farmers Alliance Mut. Ins. Co. v. Ho, 68 P.3d 546, 550 (Colo.App.2002). Moreover, the insured’s objectively reasonable expectations will be honored even when a painstaking study of the policy provisions would have negated those expectations. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Nissen, 851 P.2d 165, 167-68 (Colo.1993).

Plaintiffs argue that, by placing the anti-stacking provision in the “General Provisions” section, which is on page six of the seven-page contract, instead of the section dealing specifically with UWUIM coverage, defendants did not clearly express this limitation, and the limitation is unenforceable as a result. Plaintiffs also argue that the anti-stacking provision defeated their reasonable expectations.

But here, the limitation was not inconspicuous. The same limitation is alluded to in other sections throughout the policy. The following limitation appears on page two in the part entitled “Liability Coverage,” on page three in the part entitled “Medical Expense Coverage,” and on page four in the part entitled “Uninsured Motorists Coverage”: “We will pay no more than these máximums no matter how many vehicles are described in the declarations, or insured persons, claims, claimants, policies or vehicles are involved.”

[167]*167Plaintiffs could therefore not reasonably have expected that defendants would pay more than the policy maximum merely because two policies could potentially have applied to the same accident. When, as here, the per occurrence limit is clear and a clause precludes stacking, the insured is fully compensated under the policy when he or she receives the policy maximum. Shean v. Farmers Ins. Exch., 934 P.2d 835, 840 (Colo.App.1996).

We also reject plaintiffs’ argument that the anti-stacking provision is inconspicuous because it was placed in the “General Provisions” section of the contract rather than in the section explaining UM/UIM coverage. Even setting aside the fact that a similar provision is included in that section, because the anti-stacking provision applies not only to UM/UIM benefits, but to all benefits under the policy, we believe that it was reasonable for the insurer to place it in the General Provisions section. We also agree with the trial court that the heading “Two or more cars insured” adequately informed plaintiffs of the situations to which the provision applied.

Plaintiffs urge that we adopt a rule from other jurisdictions under which “inconspicuous” limitations of coverage are unenforceable. Assuming, without deciding, that this is a correct statement of Colorado law, plaintiffs still cannot prevail under such a theory because we do not rule that the limitation is inconspicuous.

Moreover, plaintiffs’ cause of action is not aided by the doctrine of reasonable expectations. That doctrine is not a substitute for the rule that insurance policies are to be construed according to well-settled principles of contract interpretation, but merely supplements that rule. Shean v. Farmers Ins. Exch., supra, 934 P.2d at 841. A trial court may not look beyond the plain words of an insurance contract to interpret it based on the contracting parties’ underlying intent unless the contract terms are ambiguous or are used in a special or technical sense not defined in the contract. TerraMatrix, Inc. v. U.S. Fire Ins. Co., 939 P.2d 483, 486 (Colo.App.1997).

IV. Ambiguity

Plaintiffs next assert that the policy is ambiguous with regard to UM/UIM benefits and that its limitations are therefore unenforceable. Like the trial court, we see no such ambiguity.

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Roberts v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.
113 P.3d 164 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
113 P.3d 164, 2004 WL 2278353, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roberts-v-american-family-mutual-insurance-co-coloctapp-2005.