Universal Underwriters Insurance Co. v. Weber

701 S.W.2d 588, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3699
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 22, 1985
DocketNos. 14084, 14099
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 701 S.W.2d 588 (Universal Underwriters Insurance Co. v. Weber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Universal Underwriters Insurance Co. v. Weber, 701 S.W.2d 588, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3699 (Mo. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

MAUS, Judge.

This is a declaratory judgment action to determine the status of the parties under a multi-coverage policy issued by the plaintiff, Universal Underwriters Insurance Company (Universal). The named insured is Don Treece Chevrolet, Inc., (Treece) an automobile sales agency. The trial court declared that in respect to the accident in question, the policy afforded liability insurance coverage only to the named insured. A prospective purchaser, entrusted with an automobile, and her permittee were declared to have no coverage. Two injured parties and an intervening insurance company appeal. A sketch of the facts follows.

Treece owned and operated an automobile sales agency in Cuba, Missouri. On July 19, 1983, Christa Weber and Bobby Joe Hunsel went to the Treece used car lot. Weber expressed an interest in buying a 1975 Ford Mustang. She was permitted to take the Mustang for a test drive. After she drove from the lot, Hunsel started driving the Mustang. Tracy Woodward and Vincent Knight became passengers in the Mustang. While Hunsel was driving, the Mustang collided with a pick-up truck driven by Gary Alan Weaver.

To recover damages resulting from the accident, Weaver and his wife brought an action against Treece and Weber. For the same purpose, they brought a separate action against Hunsel. Also for the same purpose, Tracy Woodward brought an action against Treece and Weber. She too brought a separate action against Hunsel.

At the time of the accident, there was in force a “Unicover Policy” insurance policy issued by Universal in which Treece was the named insured. The entire printed policy form consists of 66 pages. That form [590]*590contains provisions for many types of coverage and for various endorsements whereby a coverage may be altered or amended. As stated, the trial court found “there is no insurance coverage under Insurance Policy 481863F applicable and available to any of the defendants herein for the automobile accident of July 19, 1983, and all of its consequential ligigation [sic] except coverage for Don Treece Chevrolet, Inc., for the claim of negligent entrustment of. an automobile to defendant Christa Weber.”

The appellants’ first point is that Weber and Hunsel were insureds under “Part 500, Auto Hazards” of the policy. The Mustang was an insured automobile within the terms of the auto hazard insurance. That insurance did provide liability insurance to an insured as defined by the terms of the auto hazard insurance section. Under the terms of that section, an insured is defined as:

1. YOU;
2. Any of YOUR partners, paid employees, directors, stockholders, executive officers, a member of their household or a member of YOUR household, while using an AUTO covered by this Coverage Part, or when legally responsible for its use. The actual use of the AUTO must be by YOU or within the scope of YOUR permission;
3. Any other person or organization required by law to be an INSURED while using an AUTO covered by this Coverage Part within the scope of YOUR permission. (Emphasis added).

The appellants contend “[u]nder the law of the State of Missouri, Defendants Hun-sel and Weber were required to be insured as permissive users and therefore, the Court’s declaration that there was no coverage for them was an erroneous declaration of the law.” To support that contention, the appellants cite and rely upon a portion of a section of the Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Law, Chapter 303, RSMo 1978. The portion cited provides:

2. Such owner’s policy of liability insurance:
(2) Shall insure the person named therein and any other person, as insured, using any such motor vehicle or motor vehicles with the express or implied permission of such named insured, against loss from the liability imposed by law for damages arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of such motor vehicle. ...

§ 303.190.2(2), RSMo Supp.1984. No other statute or regulation will be considered.

The appellants failed to cite the controlling portion of § 303.190. That portion reads: “A ‘motor vehicle liability policy’ as said term is used in this chapter shall mean an owner’s or an operator’s policy of liability insurance, certified as provided in section 303.170 or section 303.180 as proof of financial responsibility,_” § 303.190.1, RSMo Supp.1984. (Emphasis added).

The decisive question is whether or not § 303.190.2(2) is a law that required Weber and Hunsel to be insureds under the Unicover Policy issued by Universal. Or, stated another way, is that section applicable to that policy? That policy had not been certified as proof of financial responsibility as provided in § 303.190.1.

Soon after its enactment, it was argued that § 303.190.2(2) was applicable to the omnibus coverage of an automobile liability insurance policy and invalidated an exclusion from that coverage. That policy provided that “[w]hen certified as proof of future financial responsibility under any motor vehicle financial responsibility law and while such proof is required during the policy period, this policy shall comply with such law if applicable, to the extent of the coverage and limits required thereby....” State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Ward, 340 S.W.2d 635, 638 (Mo.1960). The policy had not been certified. In determining the exclusion to be valid, the court held that under the Act the policy provision contained in § 303.190.2 “did not become effective until the policy had actually been certified as proof of financial responsibility under the Act.” Id. at 638. The court added, “we do not think [591]*591it is reasonable to conclude that the requirement of said section that ‘certified’ policies insure against ‘liability imposed by law’ would constitute a pronouncement of a public policy of this state that all liability policies issued to residents of this state should so insure.” Id. at 638-639.

Another court considering a similar statute distinguished an act providing for compulsory insurance from a financial responsibility act using the following language.

By limiting the application of the Financial Responsibility Act to a certain class of persons, in our view the legislature made a conscious choice to subject the specific insuring provisions contained therein only to that class of persons. In other words, insurance companies and their clients are free to contract at arm’s length without regard to provisions contained in the New Mexico Financial Responsibility Act, so long as it does not apply to them and no other express public policy considerations are involved.

Farmers Alliance Mut. Ins. Co. v. Bakke, 619 F.2d 885, 889-890 (10th Cir.1980). The cases are categorized in Farmers Alliance. Also see 7A Am.Jur.2d Automobile Insurance § 418 (1980) and Annot., Liability Insurance—First Accident, 8 A.L.R.3d 388 (1966).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
701 S.W.2d 588, 1985 Mo. App. LEXIS 3699, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/universal-underwriters-insurance-co-v-weber-moctapp-1985.