Shirley v. Centennial Insurance Co.

829 So. 2d 593, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 362, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2856, 2002 WL 31183461
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedSeptember 30, 2002
DocketNo. 02-CA-362
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 829 So. 2d 593 (Shirley v. Centennial Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shirley v. Centennial Insurance Co., 829 So. 2d 593, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 362, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2856, 2002 WL 31183461 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

1 ¡WALTER J. ROTHSCHILD, Judge.

This case arises from a motor vehicle accident that occurred on October 10,1996. The plaintiff, Larry Shirley, was driving a vehicle owned by his employer, Mount Carmel Academy, when he was rear-ended by a vehicle driven by Hartland Adams. Mr. Shirley suffered serious injuries as a result of the accident. He filed a Petition for Damages against Mr. Adams’ insurer, Shelter Insurance Company, Mr. Adams individually, and Mount Carmel’s insurer, Centennial Insurance Company. Shelter tendered its policy limits of $25,000.00, and the plaintiff released Shelter and its insured, Mr. Adams, from the suit. Mr. Shirley contends that his injuries far exceed the amount tendered by Shelter. Therefore, he seeks uninsured/underin-sured motorist (“UM”) coverage from Centennial.

In 1998, the plaintiff and Centennial each filed Motions for Partial Summary Judgment on the issue of coverage. Centennial sought a summary judgment indicating that the UM limits provided under the Centennial policy were $20,000.00 per occurrence, which is the amount listed on the UM waiver/selection form. The plaintiffs sought summary judgment declaring that the UM limits were $1,000,000.00, which is the amount of the bodily injury liability limits. After a hearing, the trial court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and declared that the Centennial policy provided UM limits of $1,000,000.00. Centennial appealed, and this Court reversed the ruling of the trial court, finding that based on the record ^before it, there were genuine issues of material fact regarding whether James Barnes, who signed the UM waiver/selection form, had the authority to do so.

The parties filed a list of “Undisputed Established Facts” in an effort to eliminate any material issues of fact. Thereafter, they each filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment once again on the issue of coverage. After a hearing, the trial court again granted summary judgment in favor of the plaintiff, declaring the UM limits under the Centennial policy to be $1,000,000.00, and denied the Motion for Summary Judgment filed by Centennial. It is from this ruling that Centennial appeals. For the reasons which follow, we affirm.

FACTS

At the time of the accident, Mount Car-mel Academy was a member of the Religious and Charitable Risk Pooling Plan of the Christian Brothers Risk Pooling Trust (the “Trust”) and participated in the Religious and Charitable Risk Pooling Trust Plan of the Brothers of Christian Schools and Affiliates (the “Plan”). The Plan is a program of risk pooling for protection against the risk of financial loss due to the imposition of liability. The Trust offers its beneficiaries the opportunity to purchase automobile insurance coverage through insurance companies that provide fronting policies to the Trust, such as Centennial.

At the time of the accident, Mr. Shirley was in the course and scope of his employment with Mount Carmel and the vehicle he was driving was covered by a Centennial insurance policy issued to the Trust with bodily injury limits of $1,000,000.00, effective August 1, 1996 through August 1, 1997. The 1996 policy did not include a UM waiver/selection form, but the Centennial policy issued in 1995, effective August 1,1995 through August 1, 1996, did contain a UM waiver/selection form, and the 1996 [595]*595policy was a renewal policy. Therefore, the UM form in question was issued with the 1995 policy.

The Trust has a board meeting each year to determine the terms of the automobile coverage to be made available under the Plan. At the board meeting in July of 1995, Michael Bemi, an employee of Arthur J. Gallagher & Go., which is an independent insurance broker, made a presentation to the Board of Trustees regarding insurance coverage offered by Centennial. After the July 1995 meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to accept Mr. Bemi’s ^proposal and they delegated to James Barnes, the Plan Administrator of the Trust, the authority to accept the Centennial policy proposed by Mr. Bemi in accordance with the directives given in the July 1995 meeting. Mr. Barnes was to serve only as a functionary to sign whatever documents were necessary to carry out the decision regarding insurance coverage that was already made by the Board of Trustees at the July 1995 meeting. Mr. Barnes did not have the authority to make any decisions regarding UM limits to be selected for the Trust.

Prior to Mr. Bemi’s presentation to the Board, he had negotiated with Gale Smith, a Senior Special Accounts Underwriter for Centennial, that if the Board of Trustees accepted the proposal, the Centennial policy would carry “minimum” or “statutory” UM limits, but he did not inform the Board of Trustees of this at the meeting. Rather, he recommended that the Trust obtain coverage consistent with the Plan Document, which provides that UM coverage is the minimum allowable per state statute, not to exceed $250,000.00 per person and limited to $1,000,000.00 per accident. The specific dollar amount of UM coverage to be provided for each state under the Centennial policy was not discussed or approved at the meeting and the option of complete rejection of UM coverage was not mentioned. Furthermore, the Board was not informed that specific forms would need to be signed regarding UM coverage, and the Board never specifically instructed Mr. Barnes to sign UM selection forms.

Centennial delivered the policy to Mr. Bemi, including all endorsements and UM selection forms for each state. The UM selection form signed by Mr. Barnes provided three UM coverage selections. The first selection was UM coverage equal to the policy’s bodily injury limits. The second choice was UM coverage at higher or lower limits than the bodily injury coverage. The third choice was complete rejection of UM coverage. A staff member at Gallagher used the figures from an endorsement provided by Centennial and filled in the blank UM forms for each state. On the form for Louisiana, the Gallagher employee selected the second option which provided for lower limits, and she placed “$20,000.00” in the blank next to this option. Mr. Barnes signed the form for Louisiana along with the forms for all states.

IfJLAWAND DISCUSSION

On appeal, Centennial argues that the trial court erred in granting the plaintiffs Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and denying Centennial’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, because it argues that UM coverage provided under the policy was $20,000.00, not $1,000,000.00.

In Louisiana, summary judgment is now favored and it shall be used to secure the just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of all actions, except those specifically excluded in LSA-C.C.P. Art. 969. LSA-C.C.P. Art. 966(A)(2). Appellate courts review summary judgments de novo applying the same criteria as the trial court to determine whether summary judgment is appropriate. Herndon and Associates v. Gettys, et al., 95-206 (La.App. 5 Cir. [596]*5967/25/95), 659 So.2d 842, 844. A summary-judgment shall be rendered if the pleadings, depositions, interrogatory responses, and admissions, together with any affidavits, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the mover is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. LSA-C.C.P. Art. 966(B). Material facts are those that have the potential to insure or preclude recovery, affect a litigants ultimate success, or determine the outcome of a legal dispute. Rambo v. Walker, 96-2538 (LaApp. 1 Cir. 11/7/97), 704 So.2d 30, 32. Accordingly, we undertake a de novo review of this appeal.

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829 So. 2d 593, 2002 La.App. 5 Cir. 362, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 2856, 2002 WL 31183461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shirley-v-centennial-insurance-co-lactapp-2002.