Swan v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.

60 So. 3d 514, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 5970, 2011 WL 1563934
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 27, 2011
DocketNo. 3D10-107
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 60 So. 3d 514 (Swan v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swan v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 60 So. 3d 514, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 5970, 2011 WL 1563934 (Fla. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

WELLS, Judge.

Kathleen Swan, as personal representative of the Estate and Survivors of Alan Swan, Sr., deceased, and Mary Joe Swan, appeal a final summary judgment entered in favor of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company on their claim for stacked uninsured motorist (“UM”) benefits under an automobile insurance policy. Because the insureds expressly rejected UM coverage on the subject policy and paid no premium for such coverage, we affirm. See Coleman v. Fla. Ins. Guar. Ass’n, 517 So.2d 686, 689-91 (Fla.1988) (holding that while “[t]he owner of several vehicles, by paying a single premium for [UM] coverage applicable to only one of them, secures [UM] coverage for himself and his family while occupying the uninsured vehicles as well as the insured vehicle,” the “number of uninsured motorist coverages available to be stacked should be based upon the number of coverages for which uninsured motorist premiums were paid”); Collins v. Gov’t Employees Ins. Co., 922 So.2d 358, 354 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (“Uninsured motorist coverage may be stacked based on the number of uninsured motorist coverages for which the insured has paid a premium rather than just the number of automobiles owned by the insured.”).

This is an insurance dispute arising out of an automobile accident that occurred on June 8, 2008, when a Honda vehicle owned and occupied by Alan Swan, Sr. and Mary Joe Swan (“the Swans”) was struck by a vehicle driven by an uninsured motorist, Juan Carlos Delgado. Mary Joe Swan was seriously injured in the accident and Alan Swan, Sr. died as a result of his injuries. Thereafter, Kathleen Swan, as personal representative for Alan Swan, Sr.’s estate, and Mary Joe Swan applied to State Farm for UM benefits under two separate automobile insurance policies: the first policy being the policy insuring the Swan’s Honda that was involved in the accident; the second policy being the policy insuring the Swan’s separately insured Acura. Specifically, the appellants sought to obtain $200,000 ($100,000 per person) in stacked UM benefits from State Farm from the policy insuring the Honda vehicle and another $200,000 ($100,000 per person) in stacked UM benefits from the policy insuring the Acura vehicle.

State Farm agreed to tender $200,000 for UM coverage under the Honda policy, but refused to tender an additional $200,000 under the Acura policy. The appellants thereafter filed this action in the lower court against the uninsured motor[516]*516ist, Mr. Delgado, and State Farm.1 The trial court entered summary final judgment in favor of State Farm, finding that the appellants were not entitled to an additional. $200,000 in UM benefits under the Acura policy because the Swans had expressly rejected UM coverage on that policy and had not paid any premiums for UM benefits thereunder. This appeal ensued.

With respect to the Swans, State Farm has always issued a separate policy for each of their vehicles. The so-called “Acura policy” at issue here was purchased in 1990 and, while the vehicle covered under that policy has changed over time (most recently to the Acura insured therein), the coverage afforded by the policy has remained the same. It is undisputed that when the Swans purchased this Acura policy in 1990, they expressly rejected UM coverage via a signed rejection form and have never paid a premium for UM coverage on that policy. The Swans purchased the so-called “Honda policy” in 2001. Unlike the Acura policy, the Swans did not reject UM coverage on the Honda vehicle in writing. The Swans therefore received stacked UM coverage in the Honda policy as required by section 627.727 of the Florida Statutes; as required they paid an additional premium for this coverage.

The appellants first argument is that that they are entitled to recover an additional $200,000 in UM benefits from the Acura policy — even though UM coverage on that policy was rejected — because the Swans purchased stacked UM coverage on the Honda policy. This, according to appellants, is because the commonly understood meaning of the word “stacked” presupposes that there are at least two UM policy limits that will be added together to give greater coverage than a single policy limit alone. We disagree as this argument conflates UM coverage, which ensures that the insurer will pay damages for bodily injuries sustained in an accident with an uninsured motor vehicle, with aggregating UM policy limits.

In Coleman, the Florida Supreme Court dispelled this argument, definitively explaining that the payment of a single premium for UM coverage on one vehicle secures liability insurance for the insured regardless of what vehicle the insured is driving at the time of an accident with an uninsured motorist; and, that the payment of an additional premium for UM coverage on a second vehicle provides additional UM coverage that supplements the insurance already available under a single coverage, which can be added together with the single coverage to provide a higher payout to the injured insured:

“[T]he case law supports tying the number of UM coverages available to the number of premiums for which UM coverage was paid.” 501 So.2d at 34. Uninsured motorist protection does not inure to a particular motor vehicle, but instead protects the named insured or insured members of his family against bodily injury inflicted by the negligence of any uninsured motorist under whatever conditions, locations, or circumstances any of such insureds happen to be in at the time. See Mullis v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Insurance Co., 252 So.2d 229 (Fla.1971); Tucker v. Government Employees Insurance Co., 288 So.2d 238, 242 (Fla.1973). Thus, the insured may be a pedestrian at the time of such injury, riding in motor vehicles of others or in public conveyances or occupying motor vehicles owned by but which are not “insured automobiles” of the named insured. Mullis, 252 So.2d at 233. It is [517]*517this aspect of uninsured motorist coverage which gives rise to aggregation or “stacking” of uninsured motorist coverages. The owner of several vehicles, by paying a single premium for coverage applicable to only one of them, secures coverage for himself and his family while occupying the uninsured vehicles as well as the insured vehicle. Thus, when an insured pays additional uninsured motorist coverage premiums, he has purchased additional coverage “coextensive with and supplementing the insurance already available under a single coverage.” Schermer, Automobile Liability Insurance, § 31.02[8] (1987). Otherwise, nothing would have been gained by payment of an additional premium because the insured’s purchase of a single uninsured motorist coverage protects him “whenever or wherever bodily injury is inflicted upon him by the negligence of an uninsured motorist.” Mullis, 252 So.2d at 238.
Thus, in Sellers v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 185 So.2d 689 (Fla.1966), it was held that an insured protected by more than one policy of uninsured motorist insurance was entitled to recover under all such policies to the extent of his bodily injury. Later, in Tucker, this Court stated that the same rule applied when multiple coverage was afforded in a single policy rather than multiple policies. As we stated in Tucker, “[a]n insured under uninsured motorist coverage is entitled by the statute to the full bodily injury protection that he purchases and for which he pays premi-urns,” regardless of the number of vehicles covered by his auto liability policy. 288 So.2d 238, 242 (Fla.1973). Accordingly, consistent with this Court’s decision in

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Bluebook (online)
60 So. 3d 514, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 5970, 2011 WL 1563934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swan-v-state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-co-fladistctapp-2011.