Missouri Insurance Lawyer Blog

Insurance policies are complicated legal contracts between you, the policy holder, and the insurance company. Very often, when a policy holder makes a claim for damages they believe should be covered by their insurance policy, the insurance company will deny the claim citing a reason unknown or often misunderstood by the policy holder.
On December 27, 2011, the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern Division, decided an insurance case based on the disputed definition of "owned" and "resident". The case, Manner v. Schiermeier, et. al, and American Family Mutual Insurance Company and American Standard Insurance Company, Case No. ED96143, was a claim against the insurance companies for underinsured motorists coverage on four separate automobile insurance policies because of serious injuries suffered in a motorcycle collision.

The coverage on at least one of the insurance policies depended upon whether the injured Plaintiff "owned" the motorcycle which he was driving as that word was used in the policy. For purposes of the insurance policy, the Court of Appeals determined that even though the certificate of title was not yet in the Plaintiff's name, the undisputed facts demonstrated that the plaintiff held the motorcycle as his own possession, had paid for it, either in whole or in part; drove it; and was in the process of having title transferred to him; and had separately paid for liability and underinsured motorist insurance. Therefore the Court determined that the Plaintiff did indeed "own" the motorcycle for purposes of insurance coverage.

Continue reading "WHETHER OR NOT YOU RECOVER BENEFITS FROM YOUR AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE POLICY MAY DEPEND UPON THE DEFINITION OF A SINGLE WORD IN THAT POLICY" »

This article discusses what California is doing to address uninsured motorists on the road.

California Taking Aim at Uninsured on the Roads - New York Times.

Missouri also has a large problem of uninsured vehicles on the road, which our legislature has failed to address. Consider also that the the required auto insurance limits are only $25,000.00 per person and $50,000.00 per accident in Missouri. These limits have not changed since the 1980's and have been reduced in actual value by inflation. These limits will not cover medical bills and lost wages if an injury of any magnitude is suffered. To protect yourself until the Missouri legislature acts you should carry limits of uninsured and underinsured motorist limits of at least $100,000.00 to protect yourself if your are in a car accident and are injured. If you have been injured and need help contact the lawyers of Tatlow, Gump, Faiella, & Wheelan, LLC at 1-800-264-3455 or visit our website to learn more.

It's amazing how many times I have clients injured in a car crash tell me that that thought they had "full coverage." In Missouri there are minimum state requirements for insurance coverage, but these minimums are very far from full coverage. When your only instruction to an agent or insurance company is that you want full coverage you are leaving your financial protection to chance. Missouri law requires that auto policies have liability insurance coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident, and the same limits for uninsured auto coverage. There is no legal requirement to have underinsured motorist coverage, medical payments coverage, accidental death, or extended benefits coverage.
Underinsured coverage offers protection from drivers who injure you but do not have enough coverage to cover your injuries. Medical payments coverage pays for medical bills you incur as a result of being injured by a vehicle related incident, if you are killed this coverage pays all or part of the face amount of the benefit depending on the policy. Accidental death provides additional coverage should you die in an auto related incident. Extended benefits coverage pays lost wages if you are off work from an auto related incident.
If you want full coverage you would purchase all of this coverage to insure that you are truly protected. You also need to purchase insurance limits that make sense for you given your financial circumstances. I suggest that your minimum limits should be no less than $100,000 for liability insurance, uninsured motorist, and underinsured motorist. $10,000 in medical payments coverage and accidental death is adequate if you have adequate health insurance and life insurance. If you have significant assets or income then you should purchase higher limits to protect yourself and your family.

The Missouri Court of Appeals recently rejected the appeal of an insurance company which sought to escape their duty to defend and indemnify a 15 year old unlicensed driver.  The case arose out of a one car accident which resulted in personal injuries to the passenger. 

The insurance company claimed an exclusionary provision precluded coverage for "any person" operating a vehicle without a reasonable belief that the person is entitled to do so.  The term "any person" was not defined in the policy.  Relying on the doctrine of ambiguity the trial court found the term to be ambiguous when reading the policy as a whole.  On appeal the Missouri Eastern District agreed finding that the policy term could be read by a lay person as either referring to any defined insured or a global term referring to anyone other than a defined insured.  The court upheld the trial court's decision which arose procedurally from cross motion for summary judgment. The case is Miller's Classified Ins. Co. v. Aimee French, et al, Missouri Court of Appeals, E.D. Appeal No. ED82306.