Stott v. Peerless Insurance

47 A.3d 965, 137 Conn. App. 373, 2012 WL 3079224, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 369
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedAugust 7, 2012
DocketAC 33565
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 47 A.3d 965 (Stott v. Peerless Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stott v. Peerless Insurance, 47 A.3d 965, 137 Conn. App. 373, 2012 WL 3079224, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 369 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion

ROBINSON, J.

The plaintiff in this action for underin-sured motorist benefits, Sarah Stott, appeals from the summary judgment rendered by the trial court in favor of the defendant, Peerless Insurance Company. On appeal, the plaintiff claims that the court erred in concluding that she was barred as a matter of law from recovering additional underinsured motorist benefits under her parents’ insurance policy on the basis of [375]*375the policy’s “owned auto” exclusion and antistacking provision and pursuant to the antistacking provision in General Statutes § 38a-336 (d).1 We conclude that the defendant was entitled to summary judgment on the basis of the antistacking provision in § 38a-336 (d), and, therefore, we need not address the plaintiffs other claims regarding the viability and applicability of the “owned auto” exclusion2 and the antistacking provision in the parents’ policy and whether they would provide an independent basis for granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant. See Cambridge Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. Sakon, 132 Conn. App. 370, 372 n.2, 31 A.3d 849 (2011), cert. denied, 304 Conn. 904, 38 A.3d 1202 (2012).

We begin by setting forth the following undisputed facts and procedural history. On July 1, 2009, the plaintiff was driving her vehicle on Butts Bridge Road in [376]*376Canterbury when a vehicle operated by Steven M. Pop-pie, driving in the opposite direction, crossed over into the plaintiffs lane of travel and struck her vehicle head on. The plaintiff suffered serious bodily injuries as a result of the collision.3 At the time of the collision, Poppie’s vehicle was covered by an insurance policy that included liability limits of $20,000 per person. The plaintiffs vehicle was covered under her insurance policy with the defendant and included underinsured motorist coverage of $100,000 per person. The plaintiff lived with her parents at the time of the collision. Her parents insured their automobiles under a separate policy, also issued by the defendant. The plaintiffs vehicle was not a covered vehicle under the parents’ policy, however, the parents’ policy extended coverage to resident relatives living in their home and provided for underinsured motorist benefits of $250,000 per person.

The plaintiff obtained $20,000 pursuant to Poppie’s liability policy and $80,000 under her own policy’s underinsured motorist coverage. She then filed the present action in which she sought to recover additional underinsured motorist benefits from the defendant under her parents’ insurance policy. The defendant filed an answer denying that the plaintiff was entitled to benefits under the parents’ policy and raising a number of special defenses, including that coverage under the parents’ policy was precluded by the express terms of that policy and that, pursuant to § 38-336 (d), the plaintiffs own policy provided her exclusive remedy.

On December 22, 2010, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that there were no genuine issues of material fact in dispute and that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the coverage dispute, again asserting that any recovery by the plaintiff of additional underinsured motorist benefits under [377]*377her parents’ policy was excluded by the terms of the policy and by the antistacking provisions in § 38a-336 (d). On June 1, 2011, the court issued a decision finding that there were no disputed issues of material fact and that the defendant was entitled to judgment in its favor on the basis of the unambiguous exclusionary provisions of the parents’ policy and pursuant to § 38a-336 (d). This appeal followed.

We begin by setting forth the applicable law governing our review of the claims raised on appeal. “Practice Book § 17-49 provides that summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, affidavits and any other proof submitted show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. In deciding a motion for summary judgment, the trial court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. . . . The party moving for summary judgment has the burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact and that the party is, therefore, entitled to judgment as a matter of law. ... On appeal, we must determine whether the legal conclusions reached by the trial court are legally and logically correct and whether they find support in the facts set out in the memorandum of decision of the trial court. . . . Our review of the trial court’s decision to grant [a party’s] motion for summary judgment is plenary.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Hannaford v. Mann, 134 Conn. App. 265, 269-70, 38 A.3d 1239, cert. denied, 304 Conn. 929, 42 A.3d 390 (2012). In conducting our review, we are cognizant that “[a] motion for summary judgment is properly granted if it raises at least one legally sufficient defense that would bar the plaintiffs claim and involves no triable issue of fact.” (Interna! quotation marks omitted.) Weiner v. Clinton, 106 Conn. App. 379, 383, 942 A.2d 469 (2008).

[378]*378In the present appeal, the plaintiff acknowledges that there are no material facts in dispute; rather, she challenges the court’s legal conclusions, arguing that they “are inconsistent with the law of uninsured/underin-sured motorist coverage.” We must decide, therefore, whether the court’s determination that the plaintiff was not entitled to additional underinsured motorist benefits under her parents’ policy was legally and logically correct. Specifically, we turn to the plaintiffs claim that the court improperly granted summary judgment as a matter of law on the basis of the antistacking provision in § 38a-336 (d). We disagree with the claim.

Since 1979, this state has required that automobile insurance policies provide underinsured motorist benefits “for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of . . . underinsured motor vehicles . . . because of bodily injury . . . .” General Statutes § 38a-336 (a) (1). “[T]he rationale behind underinsured motorist coverage ... is to provide an insured who is injured in an accident with the same resources he would have had if the tortfeasor had liability insurance equal to the amount of the insured’s uninsured/underin-sured motorist coverage. . . . The purpose is not to guarantee full compensation for a claimant’s injuries. . . . Indeed, underinsured motorist protection is not intended to provide a greater recovery than would have been available from the tortfeasor. . . . The public policy established by the uninsured/underinsured motorist statute is to assure that every insured recovers the damages he or she would have been able to recover if the uninsured or underinsured motorist had maintained an adequate policy of liability insurance . . . equal to the amount of the insured’s uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Fuchs v. Allstate Ins. Co., 96 Conn. App.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 A.3d 965, 137 Conn. App. 373, 2012 WL 3079224, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stott-v-peerless-insurance-connappct-2012.