Citizens Mut. Ins. Co. v. Turner, Docket No. 17866
| Decision Date | 31 May 1974 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 17866,No. 2,2 |
| Citation | 53 Mich.App. 616,220 N.W.2d 203 |
| Parties | CITIZENS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Alice Ann TURNER, a minor, Defendant-Appellee |
| Court | Court of Appeal of Michigan — District of US |
Carl J. Schoemer, Brighton, for plaintiff-appellant.
Gerald J. Coughlin, Kleeb & Coughlin, Howell, for defendant-appellee.
Before McGREGOR, P.J., and R. B. BURNS and O'HARA,* JJ.
Defendant Alice Turner was a passenger in a vehicle owned and operated by a Stanley Adams. The Adams vehicle was involved in an accident that severely injured her. Adams was an uninsured motorist.
At the time of the accident, defendant's parents were insured by plaintiff. The insurance included uninsured motorist protection that applied to the defendant's injuries in this case.
Defendant's claims under the policy were submitted to arbitration pursuant to the insurance contract provisions. The arbitrator awarded defendant $15,500 for her injuries. Plaintiff challenges the award on three grounds. Plaintiff claims that the arbitrator was biased in defendant's favor; plaintiff also claims that the arbitrator erroneously allowed hearsay material to be admitted into evidence. We find no merit in either of these contentions.
Plaintiff also contends that the arbitrator's award exceeded the maximum coverage available under the policy and, as a result, the arbitrator was without the power to make such an award. Basic to this issue is the resolution of the question of whether defendant's parents held one or two insurance policies with plaintiff. If, as the trial judge and the arbitrator believed, the defendant's parents actually held two policies then the policies could be stacked, providing defendant with a total of $20,000 worth of available insurance coverage instead of the $10,000 coverage found in the individual policies. Blakeslee v. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. of Michigan, 388 Mich. 464, 201 N.W.2d 786 (1972), and Boettner v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 388 Mich. 482, 201 N.W.2d 795 (1972).
Boettner v. State Farm Mut. Ins., 388 Mich. 482, 484, 201 N.W.2d 795, 796 (1972). (Emphasis supplied.)
An extremely important part of the insurance policy states on page 12, paragraph 7:
'When two or more automobiles are insured hereunder, the Terms of this policy shall apply separately to each, but an automobile and an attached trailer shall be deemed to be one automobile as respects the limits of liability under section 2 * * *.' (Emphasis supplied.)
While plaintiff subsumed all of its business...
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