Shannon Robinson and Bryan Robinson v. Erie Insurance Exchange

9 N.E.3d 673, 2014 WL 2583672, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 484
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 10, 2014
Docket49S02-1311-PL-733
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 9 N.E.3d 673 (Shannon Robinson and Bryan Robinson v. Erie Insurance Exchange) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shannon Robinson and Bryan Robinson v. Erie Insurance Exchange, 9 N.E.3d 673, 2014 WL 2583672, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 484 (Ind. 2014).

Opinion

DICKSON, Chief Justice.

This appeal challenges a grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurance company on the issue of whether its automobile policy provided uninsured motorists coverage for automobile property damage caused by a hit-and-run driver where no personal injury resulted. We affirm.

Plaintiffs Shannon Robinson and Bryan Robinson seek coverage for property damage under the uninsured motorists coverage of an automobile insurance policy issued by defendant Erie Insurance Exchange, arising from an accident where the Robinsons’ insured vehicle was struck by a Jeep operated by a hit-and-run driver. Erie denied the Robinsons’ claim, and the Robinsons brought this action. In response to the Robinsons’ motion for summary judgment on the- coverage issue, Erie requested summary judgment in its favor. Following written briefs and oral arguments from the parties, the trial court entered summary judgment for Erie.

The Robinsons appealed, urging that Gillespie v. GEICO Gen. Ins. Co., 850 N.E.2d 913 (Ind.Ct.App.2006), trans. not sought, mandates that the Erie policy provide coverage for property damage sustained by their vehicle in the hit-and-run accident. The Court of Appeals agreed and reversed summary judgment for Erie, concluding that the Robinsons’ motion should have been granted. Robinson v. Erie Ins. Exck, 991 N.E.2d 961 (Ind.Ct.App.2013). We granted transfer.

The relevant facts are not in dispute. Erie Insurance Exchange issued a family auto insurance policy to Shannon Robinson. The policy listed her son Bryan Robinson’s 1998 Nissan Altima as a covered auto with Bryan as its principal driver. On March 27, 2011, Bryan was driving this Nissan without any passengers, when a Jeep ran a red light, struck his car, and left the scene. The identity of the driver and owner of the Jeep are unknown. Bryan suffered no personal injuries, but the accident totaled his car. In response to the Robinsons’ claim for damages to Bryan’s Nissan, Erie denied coverage. Because the pertinent facts are undisputed and this case only involves the interpretation of insurance policy contract language, it represents a question of law and we review it de novo. See State Auto. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Flexdar, Inc., 964 N.E.2d 845, 848 (Ind.2012).

The Erie “Family Auto Policy” in effect on the date of the accident provided coverage for both bodily injury and property damage liability, medical payments, and uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage. It did not provide collision or comprehensive coverage to the insured automobile. Under its uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage, the Erie policy promised to “pay damages for bodily injury and property damage that the law entitles ‘anyone we protect’, or the legal representative of ‘anyone we protect’ to recover from the owner or operator of an ‘uninsured motor vehicle’ or ‘underinsured motor vehicle.’ ” Appellant’s App’x at 21 (quoted terms in bold are expressly de *675 fined in the policy). The term “uninsured motor vehicle” is defined by the policy as follows:

“Uninsured motor vehicle” means:
1. a “motor vehicle” for which there is no liability bond or insurance at the time of the accident in the amounts required by the financial responsibility law where the “auto we insure” is principally garaged;
2. a “motor vehicle” for which the insuring company denies coverage or is or becomes insolvent; or
3. a hit-and-run “motor vehicle.” The vehicle must cause bodily injury to “you” by hitting “you,” an “auto we insure” or a vehicle “you” are “occupying.” The identity of the driver and owner of the hit-and-run vehicle must be unknown....

Id. at 20 (italics added). Among the policy exclusions from coverage is: “4. property damage, if the owner or operator of the other ‘motor vehicle’ cannot be identified.” Mat 21.

The parties dispute whether the hit-and-run Jeep satisfies one of the three alternative meanings set forth in the policy’s definition of “uninsured motor vehicle.” Asserting that Gillespie is controlling, the Robinsons contend (a) that coverage for the damage to their Nissan is provided under the first meaning (a vehicle without adequate liability coverage), and (b) that Erie failed to prove the owner or operator “cannot be identified” as required by Exclusion 4. Erie responds that Gillespie is distinguishable, that the first meaning is not relevant, and that under the third meaning a hit-and-run vehicle whose driver and owner are unknown would have qualified as an “uninsured motor vehicle,” but only if the collision had resulted in bodily injury to Bryan Robinson, who was not injured.

In Gillespie, the Court of Appeals stated the issue as “whether [the plaintiff] sufficiently ‘identified’ the owner or operator of the vehicle that caused an accident and left the scene such that it qualified as an ‘uninsured auto’ under the GEICO Insurance Policy.” 850 N.E.2d at 914. Without particular analysis, the court declared that this vehicle satisfied the policy’s general definition of “uninsured auto” because there was “no bodily injury liability bond or insurance policy applicable with liability limits complying with [Indiana’s] financial responsibility law.” Id. at 918. The policy further defined the term “uninsured auto” as not applying to “a vehicle whose owner or operator cannot be identified.” Id. Concluding that the term “identified” was ambiguous, the court found that a generic identification (“white Honda driven by a Caucasian female”) was sufficient to identify the driver of the Honda and thus to satisfy the identification requirement. Id. at 917-18.

The language of the GEICO insurance policy in Gillespie, however, is significantly different from the Erie policy language at issue in the present case. Both policies provide uninsured motorists coverage, and condition such coverage on the satisfaction of a definition of “uninsured auto” or “uninsured motor vehicle.” In the GEICO policy, “uninsured auto” includes two alternatives: (1) a vehicle “which has no bodily injury liability bond or insurance policy applicable with liability limits complying with the financial responsibility law” and (2) “an auto whose insurer is or becomes insolvent or denies coverage.” Id. at 915. GEICO’s policy further declared that “uninsured auto” does not include “a vehicle whose owner or operator cannot be identified.” Id. In contrast, the Erie policy defines “uninsured motor vehicle” with language that somewhat approximates the two alternatives listed in the GEICO policy, but then also includes a third alterna *676 tive that explicitly includes a hit-and-run vehicle whose driver and owner are unknown — provided that bodily injury results to the Erie insured.

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9 N.E.3d 673, 2014 WL 2583672, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shannon-robinson-and-bryan-robinson-v-erie-insurance-exchange-ind-2014.