Roy v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

954 F.2d 392, 1992 WL 6900
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 22, 1992
DocketNo. 89-5625
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 954 F.2d 392 (Roy v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roy v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance, 954 F.2d 392, 1992 WL 6900 (6th Cir. 1992).

Opinion

DAVID A. NELSON, Circuit Judge.

This litigation arises out of a head-on motor vehicle collision in which one of the drivers was killed and his passenger and the other driver were seriously injured. The decedent’s administratrix and the injured passenger and his wife have sued their own automobile insurance carriers. The plaintiffs contend that their policies entitle them to be paid for their uncompensated damages because, although the driver who caused the accident had the minimum liability coverage required by state law, the owner of the vehicle he was operating had no liability coverage.

The validity of the plaintiffs’ contentions turns on the answers to two questions. The first is whether, under applicable state law, the offending vehicle was “uninsured” notwithstanding that its driver had liability coverage. The second is whether one of the defendant insurance companies wrote “underinsured” motorist coverage for more than the liability coverage of the driver of the offending vehicle.

Answering both questions in the negative, the district court entered summary judgment in favor of the insurance companies. Upon review of the record de novo, we conclude that the district court reached the correct result; we shall therefore affirm the judgment.

I

The accident occurred on November 7, 1987, on a state highway in Kentucky. A Ford pickup truck driven by defendant Warren Goode, who was 16 years old at the time, skidded out of control, crossed the center line, and crashed into an oncoming Chevrolet pickup truck. The driver of the Chevrolet, Mr. W. T. Roy, was killed; his passenger, plaintiff Raymond Tarter, was injured, as was young Goode.

The Ford was owned by defendant David Birchfield, a resident of the State of Georgia. Goode, also a resident of Georgia, was driving the vehicle with Birchfield’s permission. Goode had no driver’s license.

Although Mr. Birchfield did not carry liability insurance on the Ford, Warren Goode had liability insurance coverage under a policy issued to his mother by Dairy-land Insurance Company. The stated limits of the Dairyland policy were $15,000 for each person injured, subject to a limit of $30,000 per accident. Kentucky’s Motor Vehicle Reparations Act imposes a minimum insurance requirement that can be fulfilled by “split limits” liability coverage of not less than $25,000 for bodily injury sustained by any one person and not less than $50,000 for injuries sustained by all persons injured in any one accident. Ky. Rev.Stat. 304.39-110. Dairyland was qualified to do business in Kentucky, and notwithstanding its stated policy limits of $15, 000/$30,000, it acknowledged that during the time Warren Goode was driving Mr. Birchfield’s vehicle in Kentucky, Dairyland furnished liability coverage meeting the Kentucky minimum of $25,000/$50,000.

The decedent, Mr. Roy, carried bodily injury liability insurance of $200,000/ $500,000 on his Chevrolet pickup. Included in Mr. Roy’s policy, which was issued by defendant State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, was uninsured motor vehicle bodily injury coverage (described in the policy as “Coverage U”) in the amount of $25,000 for each person and $50,000 for each accident.

Mr. Tarter, the passenger in the Roy vehicle, carried automobile liability insurance under a policy issued by defendant Capital Enterprise Insurance Company. This policy also included uninsured vehicle coverage, the precise wording of which differed somewhat from that in the State Farm policy.

Following the appointment of Mr. Roy’s widow, Nelva Roy, as administratrix of Mr. [394]*394Roy’s estate, Mrs. Roy brought a federal court diversity action against Birchfield, Goode, and State Farm. The complaint charged Goode with negligent driving. Birchfield was charged with negligence in having entrusted the operation of his vehicle to an unlicensed and incompetent driver and with having allowed the driver to operate the vehicle contrary to statute.

The substance of Mrs. Roy’s claim against State Farm was that the company had written uninsured motorist coverage of $25,000/$50,000 under which it was jointly liable for any judgment obtained against Birchfield and Goode; that State Farm had also provided underinsured motorist coverage in an amount not specified in the policy, but which Mr. and Mrs. Roy reasonably expected to be $200,000 per person and $500,000 per occurrence; and that State Farm was jointly liable for any judgment against Birchfield and Goode not only under this coverage, but also under uninsured and underinsured motorist coverages said to have been included in four additional liability insurance policies issued to Mr. Roy on vehicles not involved in the accident.

Mr. Tarter and his wife sued Birchfield, Goode, State Farm and Capital Enterprise in a Kentucky state court, alleging among other things that the Tarters were additional insureds under Mr. Roy’s State Farm policy and that they had uninsured motorist coverage under the policy issued to them by Capital Enterprise. The Tarter lawsuit was removed to federal court on diversity grounds, and was consolidated there with the case brought by Mrs. Roy.

Defendant Birchfield, the owner of the Ford pickup, failed to enter an appearance, and the district court eventually entered a default judgment against him. The judgment related to liability only; the quantum of damages remained to be determined.

Following discovery proceedings, cross-motions for summary judgment were filed by the plaintiffs and the insurance companies that had been joined as defendants. The district court (Siler, C.J.) granted summary judgment in favor of the insurance companies. Relying on Commonwealth Fire and Casualty Ins. Co. v. Manis, 549 S.W.2d 303 (Ky.Ct.App.1977), Judge Siler concluded that because the driver of the Ford pickup had liability insurance coverage meeting the statutory minimum, the truck was not “uninsured.” Accordingly, neither State Farm nor Capital Enterprise owed anything pursuant to what the complaints called “uninsured motorist” coverage. With respect to the “underinsurance” claims against State Farm, Judge Siler found that Mr. Roy had selected underin-sured motorist coverage limits in the amount of $25,000/$50,000; because liability coverage was available in that amount under the Dairyland policy, Judge Siler held, the plaintiffs could not recover against State Farm.

Subsequent to the entry of summary judgment, Dairyland paid $25,000 to Mrs. Roy and $25,000 to Mr. and Mrs. Tarter, thereby exhausting its adjusted policy limits. The plaintiffs’ claims against Warren Goode were dismissed as settled, and State Farm and Capital Enterprise waived any subrogation rights they might have had against Goode. Although the damages owed by Mr. Birchfield were still undetermined, Judge Siler directed the entry of a final judgment in favor of State Farm and Capital Enterprise. Pursuant to Rule 54(b), Fed.R.Civ.P., the judge expressly determined that “there is no just reason for delay.” Mrs. Roy and Mr. and Mrs. Tarter then perfected this appeal.

II

Although only one pickup truck jumped the center line, there were two putative tortfeasors — the driver of that truck and its owner. The owner had no liability insurance, but the driver had liability coverage for the full amount mandated by Kentucky law.

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954 F.2d 392, 1992 WL 6900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roy-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-ca6-1992.