Appeals Courts Address Uninsured Motorist Coverage Disputes
Recent rulings from appellate courts in Florida and North Carolina have provided clarity on uninsured motorist (UM) coverage, addressing the scope of coverage related to electric scooters and the ability to “stack” insurance policies.
Florida: State Farm Must Cover Scooter Accident
A panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court’s decision, ruling that State Farm must pay an uninsured motorist claim resulting from injuries caused by an electric motor scooter. The ruling, issued Monday, rejected State Farm’s argument that it was not liable because the scooter did not meet the definition of a “motor vehicle” under Florida statutes.
In the case, Anna Bevilacqua Sprangler was driving her 2015 Nissan Altima insured by State Farm when she collided with a Razor Pocket Mod scooter on a Florida highway in 2019. The scooter’s driver, Edward Allen Leveque, died in the accident, and Sprangler sustained injuries. She filed a claim seeking the policy’s $100,000 UM limit, but State Farm denied, arguing the scooter wasn’t a “motor vehicle.” The district court sided with State Farm, but the appeals court reversed that decision.
The appeals court found that the State Farm policy covered “land motor vehicles,” a term broader than the statutory definition. The court noted that although the scooter lacked features like brake lights and turn signals, the plain meaning of “land motor vehicle” included electric scooters. The court emphasized that the policy did not define “uninsured motor vehicle” in a way that violated state law, therefore the statutory definition was not controlling.
North Carolina: Policyholders Can “Stack” Coverage
In a separate case, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that an injured claimant could “stack” coverage limits from multiple insurance policies to establish that a vehicle was underinsured, potentially leading to a larger payout. The case involved a 2020 two-car collision in Rockingham County. Kyrie Mebane was injured while a passenger in a vehicle driven by Terell Bellamy.
Bellamy’s car was insured by Farm Bureau with a $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident limit. Farm Bureau offered to split the per-accident limit among the injured passengers, leaving Mebane with only $5,000. Mebane’s mother also had a Farm Bureau policy with $50,000 per person and $100,000 per accident underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. Farm Bureau argued that the vehicle was not underinsured, as Bellamy’s liability coverage was equal to the limits of his UIM policy.
Mebane’s attorneys argued that he was owed $95,000 by combining his mother’s UIM policy and Bellamy’s UIM coverage to determine underinsured status. The trial court agreed, and the appeals court upheld that decision. The appeals court referenced North Carolina law which states a vehicle is deemed underinsured if the total liability coverage is less than the total UIM coverage and that a vehicle is underinsured if multiple people are injured and receive less in liability payments than the vehicle’s UIM coverage. The court referenced a 2018 ruling in Nationwide Affinity Insurance vs. Le Bei, which supported the stacking of UIM coverage in this type of situation.
These recent court decisions significantly impact the landscape of uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, specifically addressing coverage complexities related to emerging technology like electric scooters and clarifying the rights of policyholders to pursue comprehensive claims in accident scenarios.
