Davis v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., AUTO-OWNERS
| Decision Date | 07 March 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 870360,AUTO-OWNERS,870360 |
| Citation | 420 N.W.2d 347 |
| Parties | Richard DAVIS, as guardian ad litem and next friend of Ericka Davis, a minor, Plaintiff and Appellant, v.INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant and Appellee. Civ. |
| Court | North Dakota Supreme Court |
Richie & Associates, Fargo, for plaintiff and appellant; argued by Craig M. Richie.
Dosland, Dosland, Nordhougen, Lillehaug & Johnson, P.A., Moorhead, Minn., for defendant and appellee; argued by Duane A. Lillehaug.
Ericka Davis, by Richard Davis, her father and guardian ad litem, appealed from a summary judgment dismissing her claim against Auto-Owners Insurance Company for underinsured benefits. We affirm.
Ericka was injured by a motor vehicle driven by Dan Wallock. Wallock had liability insurance with State Farm Insurance Company. Ericka sued Wallock. The lawsuit was settled by State Farm's payment to Ericka of $100,000, the liability limit of Wallock's policy.
When Ericka was injured, her father had motor vehicle insurance with Auto-Owners which covered Ericka, as an additional insured, with underinsured motorist protection of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence. Claiming her damages exceeded the $100,000 settlement, Ericka sought underinsurance benefits from Auto-Owners. Auto-Owners denied her claim, insisting that its underinsurance coverage did not apply unless the tortfeasor's liability insurance limit was lower than the limit of underinsurance protection by Auto-Owners.
Ericka sued Auto-Owners for breach of its agreement to protect her from loss through injury by an underinsured motorist. Ericka relied solely upon the policy provisions and did not claim fraud, misrepresentation, or misunderstanding about the extent of the insurance. The trial court, concluding that underinsurance coverage did not apply because Wallock's vehicle was not underinsured, granted Auto-Owners' motion for summary judgment and dismissed Ericka's claim.
On appeal, Ericka asserts that the policy language limiting underinsurance coverage was contrary to public policy favoring adequate compensation of auto accident victims and was therefore unenforceable.
Auto-Owners' policy unambiguously stated that its underinsured coverage applied only when the tortfeasor's liability insurance was less than Auto-Owners' agreed amount of underinsurance coverage. When the language of an insurance policy is unambiguous it should not be strained to impose liability on the insurer. Anderson v. American...
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Butz v. Werner
...public policy and should be used to "fill the void" left from our prior decisions. Cass and World rely upon Davis v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., 420 N.W.2d 347 (N.D.1988), to support their argument. In Davis we noted that a later-enacted statute may be indicative of earlier public policy "[a......
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...the language of an insurance policy is unambiguous, it should not be strained to impose liability on the insurer. Davis v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 420 N.W.2d 347, 348 (N.D.1988). There is no ambiguity in either the statutory language or the policy language. It plainly provides that an insured......
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...may be an indication of, and in accord with, an earlier public policy, absent evidence to the contrary. See Davis v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co., 420 N.W.2d 347, 349 (N.D.1988); Jerry Harmon Motors v. Farmers U. Grain Term., 337 N.W.2d 427, 431 (N.D.1983). There is evidence to the contrary here. T......
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Smith v. North Dakota Workers Compensation Bureau, 890047
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