ORTRIE D. SMITH, Senior District Judge.
This suit asserts various claims arising from Plaintiff's contention that he is covered under the underinsured motorist provisions of his parents' automobile policies. Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. # 15) is granted.
In December 2012, Plaintiff was involved in an automobile accident with Margo Reed. Plaintiff was seventeen years old at the time; he lived with his parents and was driving an Acura Integra titled in his mother's name. Plaintiff collected the limits under Reed's automobile policy, but those sums were insufficient to compensate Plaintiff for his damages.
Plaintiff's parents owned three other vehicles: a Pontiac Grand Prix, a Harley Davidson FXD, and a Chevrolet Trailblazer. Defendant issued insurance policies on all four vehicles. Plaintiff is not a named insured on any of them. All four policies contained an underinsured motorist ("UIM") provision; the terms of the UIM coverage were the same in all four policies except for the coverage limits: for the Acura, the UIM paid $25,000 per person and $50,000 total per accident, and for the other three policies it paid $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. Plaintiff contended he was entitled to $100,000 and filed suit when Defendant declined to pay that sum. After this suit was filed, Defendant paid Plaintiff $25,000 — the limit of the Acura's UIM coverage.
A moving party is entitled to summary judgment on a claim only if there is a showing that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."
As is true for all contracts, interpretation of an insurance contract is a matter of law.
Plaintiff does not contend that the policies stack.
All italicized and bolded terms are so in the original, and indicate the term is specifically defined in the policy.
Defendant acknowledges that Plaintiff was an "insured" (although not a named insured) because the policy defined an insured to include "resident relatives," and there was no question that Plaintiff qualified as a resident relative as defined in the Policy. Thus, Plaintiff was covered under the Pontiac's UIM provision, unless an exclusion applies.
At issue is the second of the six exclusions, which provides there is no coverage when an insured sustains injury "while
Plaintiff does not contend the Acura qualified as a "newly acquired car," so the exclusion applies unless the Acura was "your car." He relies on the dictionary definition of the phrase and reasons that the Acura was "your car" because it was titled in his mother's name. The problem is that the phrase "your car" is defined in the policies and the dictionary definition cannot be employed.
The policy defines the phrase "your car" to mean "the vehicle shown under `YOUR CAR' on the Declarations Page." Thus, for instance, with respect to the Pontiac's policy, "your car" means the Pontiac. Inserting the definitions in place of the terms — and continuing to use the Pontiac's policy as an example — the Pontiac's Policy will not supply UIM coverage to Plaintiff if he was injured while occupying a car owned by his mother, unless that car was the Pontiac. Plaintiff was not injured while occupying the Pontiac, so the Pontiac's policy does not supply UIM coverage.
This analysis applies equally to the policies issued on the motorcycle and the Trailblazer. The policies' language could be more straightforward, but it is not ambiguous.
Since the suit was filed, Plaintiff has received the $25,000 — the limits of coverage under the Acura's policy. He is not entitled to more because he was excluded from the other policies' UIM coverage. Defendant is entitled to summary judgment.
IT IS SO ORDERED.