Wilson v. Automobile Insurance

744 S.E.2d 732, 293 Ga. 251, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 1822, 2013 WL 2928144, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 537
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedJune 17, 2013
DocketS13Q0212
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 744 S.E.2d 732 (Wilson v. Automobile Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilson v. Automobile Insurance, 744 S.E.2d 732, 293 Ga. 251, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 1822, 2013 WL 2928144, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 537 (Ga. 2013).

Opinion

Blackwell, Justice.

This is an insurance coverage dispute in which the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has certified two questions to this Court. Before we get to the questions, however, some background would be appropriate. In November 2001, The Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut (“Travelers”)1 issued a personal umbrella insurance policy to Louis and Betty Wilson. At that time, Georgia law provided that certain insurance policies could be issued only with a provision for uninsured motorist coverage, OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1) (2000),2 unless the insured had rejected such coverage in writing, OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (3) (2000), and [252]*252umbrella policies were among the policies in which uninsured motorist coverage was required. Abrohams v. Atlantic Mut. Ins. Agency, 282 Ga. App. 176, 180 (1) (638 SE2d 330) (2006).3 No one disputes thatthe Wilsons did not reject uninsured motorist coverage in writing, and so, although their original policy purported to exclude uninsured motorist coverage, such coverage was required by law and, therefore, implied into their original policy by operation of law. See OCGA § 33-24-12 (a) (insurance policy that is not in compliance with the Georgia Insurance Code “shall be construed and applied in accordance with such conditions and provisions as would have applied had the policy . . . been in full compliance with th[e Code]”). See also Flewellen v. Atlanta Cas. Co., 250 Ga. 709, 714 (3) (300 SE2d 673) (1983) (“[W]hen an insurer issues a policy with provisions not in compliance with the law[,] the contract will not be rendered void[,] but the provisions of the statute will be grafted into the policy.”).

The term of the original policy was for one year, and the Wilsons renewed their policy annually thereafter. For as long as the law required that their policy afford uninsured motorist coverage, they had such coverage by operation of law. Then, in 2008, our General Assembly amended the law to exempt umbrella policies from its mandatory coverage requirements: “The coverage required under [OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1)] excludes umbrella or excess liability policies unless affirmatively provided for in such policies or in a policy endorsement.” Ga. L. 2008, p. 1192, § 1. This amendment applied to “all policies issued, delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed in this state on and after [January 1, 2009].” Id. at § 5. The Wilsons renewed their umbrella policy again in November 2009, a renewal to which the 2008 amendment applied by its terms.

In October 2010, Louis Wilson was seriously injured in an automobile collision. The Wilsons gave notice of a claim for uninsured motorist benefits to Travelers, but Travelers disputed coverage, contending that the Wilsons no longer had uninsured motorist coverage under their umbrella policy, owing to the 2008 amendment. The Wilsons sued Travelers, and Travelers removed the case to the District Court, which subsequently certified these questions to us:

1. Do the offer/rejection requirements of the Georgia Uninsured Motorist Act, OCGA § 33-7-11, apply to a policy of umbrella insurance renewed [on or] after January 1, 2009?
2. DothenoticerequirementssetforthinOCGA § 33-7-11 (b) (1) (D) (ii) (III) apply to a policy of umbrella insurance?

[253]*253We will address these questions in turn.

1. As we said earlier, the 2008 amendment applies by its terms to any policy “renewed... on and after [January 1, 2009].” Ga. L. 2008, p. 1192, § 5. But the Wilsons contend that it would be unconstitutional to apply the 2008 amendment to the renewal of a policy originally issued before the adoption of the amendment and into which uninsured motorist coverage previously had been implied by operation of law. As to such a renewal, the Wilsons explain, the insured has a right to uninsured motorist coverage that vested prior to the adoption of the statutory amendment, and to the extent the amendment divests the insured of that right, it contravenes the constitutional prohibition of “retroactive law[s]” and “laws impairing the obligation of contract.” Ga. Const., Art. I, Sec. I, Par. X. No doubt, if the statutory amendment had purported to strip uninsured motorist coverage from insurance policies issued prior to its adoption, but still in force as of its effective date, it would have posed serious constitutional questions. But the amendment applies to a policy only upon a renewal of that policy after the adoption and effective date of the amendment, and in any event, it does not strip any coverage from a renewed policy. By its terms, it merely relieves the issuer of an umbrella policy from the mandatory coverage requirement of OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1), leaving the insurer and insured free to negotiate the terms of the renewal as they see fit, subject to any contractual obligations or other statutory requirements that might pertain to such a renewal.

Whether uninsured motorist coverage that previously was implied into a policy continues upon renewal would depend in part upon the terms of the renewal, that is, whether the renewal simply renews the policy as it was before — including, of course, the uninsured motorist coverage previously implied by operation of law into the policy — or whether it instead purports to modify the policy upon renewal. Those are questions, of course, of contract law, beyond the scope of the certified questions in this case. Moreover, the modification of a policy upon renewal may be limited by other laws unaffected by the 2008 amendment. For instance, under OCGA § 33-24-45 — a statute that applies to the renewal of an “automobile policy” with uninsured motorist coverage,4 OCGA § 33-24-45 (a) (2008) — an insurer must renew a covered policy so as to “provid[e] no less than the coverage [254]*254contained in the superseded policy,” unless the insurer gives statutory notice of a reason for the modification of coverage. OCGA § 33-24-45 (b) (2), (e) (l)-(2) (2008). If a policy to which OCGA § 33-24-45 applied were renewed without the required notice of a reason for modifying coverage, it necessarily would be renewed with the same coverage as the policy that it superseded, any provision of the policy otherwise notwithstanding. See OCGA § 33-24-12 (a).

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Bluebook (online)
744 S.E.2d 732, 293 Ga. 251, 2013 Fulton County D. Rep. 1822, 2013 WL 2928144, 2013 Ga. LEXIS 537, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-automobile-insurance-ga-2013.