Ted Bernardo, Doing Business as Colonial Motors Ted Bernardo Debra Bernardo v. Northland Insurance Company

45 F.3d 272

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: March 7, 1995
• Docket: 94-1205
• Status: Published

Opinions

MORRIS SHEPPARD ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

Ted and Debra Bernardo appeal from the district court’s entry of summary judgment against them on their uninsured motorists claim against Northland Insurance Company. At the time of the accident from which the claim arose, Ted Bernardo, a used car dealer, was driving a 1981 Buick. The certificate of title to this car, however, had not been delivered to him. The magistrate judge¹ held that Bernardo was not the owner of the Buick and that the Northland uninsured motorist coverage applied only to vehicles owned by Bernardo. The Bernardos maintain that it is against Missouri law and public policy for insurers to exclude non-owners from uninsured motorists coverage with respect to autos for which there is liability coverage. Because we believe that the Ber-nardos are correct, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings.

I.

Bernardo did business as Colonial Motors, and Northland issued Bernardo a commercial auto policy that included garage, liability, and uninsured motorists coverage. The liability coverage extended to “any auto,” but the uninsured motorist coverage extended only to “owned autos subject to a compulsory uninsured motorists law.”

In February 1991, Jerry Ackerman Toyota sold Colonial a 1981 Buick Park Avenue for $1,500. Bernardo paid $500 and took physical possession of the Buick, but Ackerman Toyota retained the certificate of title, and was to retain it until Bernardo paid the remainder of the purchase price. On March 13, the Bernardos were driving the Buick and were involved in an automobile accident.

The Bernardos brought this action against Northland, alleging that they were forced off the road by a phantom uninsured driver and entitled to recover under the Northland policy. The district court entered summary judgment in favor of Northland, and the facts set forth above were recited as undisputed in the magistrate judge’s order granting summary judgment. The magistrate judge held that because there was no transfer of title, Bernardo did not own the automobile, and accordingly, it was not covered under the uninsured motorists coverage of the Northland policy which applied only to owned automobiles. We review district court determinations of state law de novo, giving their decisions no deference. Salve Regina College v. Russell, 499 U.S. 225, 231, 111 S.Ct. 1217, 1221, 113 L.Ed.2d 190 (1991).

II.

The Northland policy is void as against Missouri law and public policy because it attempts to limit uninsured motorist coverage to owned vehicles only. Missouri Revised Statute § 379.203 requires “that all policies of liability insurance must also include uninsured motorist coverage to ‘persons insured thereunder.’ There is no violation of the statute unless a policy condition limits uninsured motorist protection as to persons who otherwise qualify as insureds for liability purposes.” Famuliner v. Farmers Ins. Co., 619 S.W.2d 894, 897 (Mo.App.1981) (emphasis added). Plaintiff here was otherwise qualified as an insured for liability purposes yet the policy placed limits on his uninsured motorist protection. Because Missouri law provides that exclusions such as the one before us are against public policy, we regard the exclusion as a nullity and read the policy as including appropriate uninsured motorist insurance coverage for reasons that appear hereafter.

In Otto v. Farmers Ins. Co., 558 S.W.2d 713 (Mo.App.1977), the plaintiff purchased an insurance policy including liability, uninsured motorist, and other coverage. The policy applied only to injury to the insured while occupying a described “insured motor vehicle.” The described vehicle was a car, which plaintiff later sold. He then purchased a motorcycle, which he never described as an insured vehicle under the policy. While riding the motorcycle, plaintiff collided with an uninsured motorist. Defendant insurance company rejected coverage because the motorcycle was never described as an insured vehicle, and the trial court granted summary judgment for defendant on this basis. The Missouri appellate court, based upon a careful reading of Mo.Rev.Stat. § 379.203, reversed and remanded, finding that the exclusion was contrary to public policy.

In Missouri, automobile liability insurance must provide “for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury_” Section 379.203. The purpose of the statute is “to give persons insured by such coverage, when injured by an uninsured motorist, protection parallel to that which they would have had if they had been injured in an accident caused by a motor vehicle covered by the minimum liability requirements of the financial responsibility law.” Otto, 558 S.W.2d at 717. Section 379.203 is a part of every policy of insurance to which it is applicable to the same effect as if it were written out in full in the policy itself, and an “insurer may limit the coverage afforded an insured under a policy only so long as doing so is not violative of public policy or interdicted by statute.” Otto, 558 S.W.2d at 717.

Otto stressed the personal nature of uninsured motorist coverage, and distinguished it from automobile liability insurance. “The former is akin to accident insurance (albeit restricted to a limited type of accident) as it compensates for a loss suffered by an insured, as opposed to the latter which indemnifies an insured against liability for losses suffered by third parties.” For this reason, “uninsured motorist insurance should not be confused as muring to a particular vehicle as in the case of automobile liability insurance. To the contrary, uninsured motorist insurance inures to an individual insured for bodily injury inflicted by the tortious act of an uninsured motorist.” 558 S.W.2d at 718.

The personal nature of the intended uninsured motorist coverage finds further support in the statute itself, for “[t]he statute commands that uninsured motorist coverage be part and parcel of every automobile liability policy issued ‘for the protection of persons insured thereunder_ 558 S.W.2d at 719. “Statutory authority for limited uninsured motorist coverage, as attempted by the policy exclusion under consideration, is nowhere to be found in Section 379.203_” Id. In addition, “the policy exclusion curtails uninsured motorist coverage without regard to the fact that the insured might otherwise be ‘legally entitled to recover damages’ from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle.” Id. Otto concluded that the policy exclusion was repugnant to the mandate of section 379.203.

Otto also noted that a majority of states support the view that exclusionary clauses restricting uninsured motorist coverage must fail in the face of public policy, while a few states consider whether the exclusions serve a legitimate business interest. 558 S.W.2d at 718-19. Other Missouri cases stress that uninsured motorist statutes are to be “liberally construed to accomplish their highly remedial purpose.” See, e.g., Webb v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 479 S.W.2d 148, 151 (Mo.App.1972).

There must exist an underlying automobile liability insurance policy to which the uninsured motorist coverage attaches. In Otto, while the insured sold his only described vehicle, the court found that the insurance policy was still in effect at the time of the accident. 558 S.W.2d at 716-17. Here, there seems to be no dispute about the validity of the underlying policy.

Otto requires reversal of this case. It holds that restrictions limiting uninsured motorist insurance coverage to designation of a particular car are invalid under Missouri law, and it follows that restrictions limiting uninsured motorist insurance coverage to the ownership status of a particular car are also invalid. While the facts of Otto are slightly different, because it did not involve ownership of the particular vehicle involved in the accident, but rather involved designation of an insured vehicle, the difference is without legal significance.

III.

“While the exclusion is void, the uninsured motorist insurance is still effective because, as we have noted, it is required under section 379.203 as “a part of every policy of insurance to which it is applicable to the same effect as if it were written out in full in the policy itself.” Otto, 558 S.W.2d at 717. We therefore reverse the judgment of the district court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

1 . This case was tried before a magistrate judge with the consent of the parties pursuant to 28 u.s.c. § 636(c).