State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Jin Ku Chung

778 P.2d 586, 1989 Alas. LEXIS 100
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 4, 1989
DocketNo. S-2817
StatusPublished

This text of 778 P.2d 586 (State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Jin Ku Chung) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. v. Jin Ku Chung, 778 P.2d 586, 1989 Alas. LEXIS 100 (Ala. 1989).

Opinions

OPINION

Before MATTHEWS, C.J., and RABINOWITZ, BURKE, COMPTON and MOORE, JJ.

MOORE, Justice.

This case presents the question of whether the initial binder for an insurance policy providing coverage against uninsured motorists may be construed to provide coverage against underinsured motorists.

I.

Mr. and Mrs. Chung, having recently arrived in Alaska from Korea, spoke and understood little English. The Chungs were referred to State Farm Fire & Casualty Co. to purchase automobile insurance. The Chungs went to the State Farm office in July 1984 and purchased the policy in question from State Farm’s agent Cathryn L. Saario. The purchase transaction occurred without conversation with Ms. Saar-io, who had filled the forms out in advance. It does not appear in the record who had instructed Ms. Saario on this matter, nor what that person had told the Chungs.

The policy, which became effective July 25, 1984, insured the Chungs against damage caused by an uninsured motor vehicle, in the amount of $100,000 per person and $800,000 per occurrence. On the day the Chungs purchased the insurance, Ms. Saar-io gave them a binder which made the policy effective as of July 25, 1984. The actual policy was not received by the Chungs until a few weeks later.

Before the policy arrived, the Chungs were involved in an automobile accident. The accident resulted from the negligence of the driver of the other car. Mrs. Chung was seriously injured.

[587]*587The offending car was owned by Steve Triplett, but Max O’Dell was driving the car when the accident occurred. O’Dell was covered under Triplett’s insurance policy as a permissive user. Triplett’s policy provided coverage for bodily injury liability of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per occurrence. This policy complied with the amount of liability insurance required by Alaska’s Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act (“MVSRA”) on that date. AS 28.-20.010 — 28.20.640.

Mrs. Chung’s treatment proved costly. Mrs. Chung received $25,000 from State Farm under the medical benefits provisions of the Chungs’ policy, and $25,000 from Triplett’s insurer under the bodily injury liability provisions. Given that Triplett’s car was insured, State Farm admits no further liability.

The legislature, prior to July 25, 1984, amended MVSRA to require insurers to offer underinsured as well as uninsured motor vehicle coverage. However, the Act did not become effective in relevant part until January, 1985. Ch. 70, § 21, SLA 1984. The Chungs’ policy fully complied with MVSRA.

The Chungs filed suit against State Farm, claiming that their reasonable expectations were that “uninsured vehicle” coverage included “underinsured motorists." Thus, they sought to recover $100,000 from State Farm under the uninsured motor vehicle provision in their policy. State Farm moved for summary judgment on the ground that no coverage was available under the uninsured motorist provision. The Chungs opposed State Farm’s motion, but they submitted no affidavits, statements of genuine issues of material fact, or other extrinsic evidence to support their position.

The trial court, Judge Milton Souter presiding, denied State Farm’s motion. Judge Souter’s ruling was based on his decision that “it is a reasonable inference that somebody looking at this binder, a reasonable person, in a position of the plaintiff looking at this binder when it was issued and seeing that it afforded only what was stated tó be ‘UM’ [uninsured] coverage, would believe that they were getting ‘UIM’ [underinsured] coverage as well.”

State Farm filed a petition for review which this court granted. We reverse the trial court and order that State Farm’s motion for summary judgment be granted.

II.

When reviewing a motion for summary judgment, this court must determine whether there exists any “genuine issue as to any material fact” and whether “any party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Alaska R.Civ.P. 56(c). See O’Neill Investigations v. Illinois Employers Ins. of Wausau, 636 P.2d 1170, 1172-73 (Alaska 1981).

The Chungs have not presented the court with any genuine issues of material fact. The uncontested facts show that the Chungs purchased the policy from Ms. Saario without conversation and were given a temporary insurance binder. The Chungs’ binder contains a box entitled “UNINSURED MOTOR VEH.” The box was checked to establish that this coverage was selected. The Chungs have alleged no misleading acts or representations by Ms. Saario. The question thus presented is whether, based on the above, either party was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

The Chungs contend that their expectation of coverage under the uninsured motor vehicle provision was reasonable. The Chungs rely on the binder, and its alleged ambiguity, as giving rise to reasonable expectations of coverage which a full policy would not.

. We have had occasion to determine the reasonable expectations created by an uninsured motorist insurance policy.

[An insurance policy] should be construed to provide the coverage which a layperson would have reasonably expected, given a lay interpretation of the policy language....
... To ascertain the reasonable expectations of the parties, we look to the language of the disputed policy provisions, the language of the other provi[588]*588sions of the insurance policy, and to relevant extrinsic evidence. In addition, we refer to case law interpreting similar provisions.

Stordahl v. Government Emp. Ins. Co., 564 P.2d 63, 66 (Alaska 1977) (footnotes omitted).

In Stordahl, we construed an actual insurance policy, not a binder. Construing the definition of “uninsured automobile” 1 in response to an argument similar to the Chungs’, we held that an insured could reasonably expect coverage under an uninsured motorist provision “only if there were no other applicable insurance to compensate him for injuries caused by an automobile.” Id. at 67. Since the other driver was insured at the statutory minimum level, recovery under the uninsured automobile provision was denied.

The Chungs acknowledge that Stordahl would preclude recovery if they had received their policy.2 Their central contention is that the binder in question gave rise to reasonable expectations of coverage which a full policy would not.

We find no merit in this argument. An insurance binder “shall be considered to include all the usual terms of the policy as to which the binder was given together with the applicable endorsements designated in the binder, except as superseded by the clear and express terms of the binder.” AS 21.42.240(a).3 The binder in question provides for “UNINSURED MOTOR VEH.” coverage and expressly adopts the “terms and conditions” of the automobile policy “in current use” by State Farm.4 The policy in current use by State Farm at the time contained a definition of “uninsured motor vehicle” functionally identical to the one construed in Stordahl. The binder contains no clear and express terms which supersede this definition.

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Related

Stewart-Smith Haidinger, Inc. v. Avi-Truck, Inc.
682 P.2d 1108 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1984)
Spence v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance
221 S.E.2d 643 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1975)
Stordahl v. Government Employees Insurance Co.
564 P.2d 63 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1977)
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Spence
225 S.E.2d 238 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1976)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
778 P.2d 586, 1989 Alas. LEXIS 100, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-farm-fire-casualty-co-v-jin-ku-chung-alaska-1989.