Williams v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 542

• Decision Date: 20 January 1967
• Docket Number: No. 542,542
• Citation: 152 S.E.2d 102,269 N.C. 235
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: Perry Clay WILLIAMS v. NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

Page 102

152 S.E.2d 102

269 N.C. 235

Perry Clay WILLIAMS v. NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. 542.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Jan. 20, 1967.

Vaughan S. Winborne, Raleigh, for plaintiff.

Bailey, Dixon & Wooten, Raleigh, for defendant.

BRANCH, Justice .

G.S. § 20--279.21(b)(3) in pertinent part provides: 'No policy of bodily injury liability insurance, covering liability arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle, shall be delivered or issued for delivery in this State with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this State unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto, in limits for bodily injury or death set forth in subsection (c) of § 20--279.5, under provisions filed with and approved by the Insurance Commissioner, for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured (motor vehicles and hit-and-run motor vehicles because of bodily) injury, sickness or disease, including death, resulting therefrom; * * *'

'In North Carolina today all insurance policies covering loss from liability arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle are, to the extent required by G.S. § 20--279.21, mandatory. All which insure in excess of the compulsory coverage are voluntary policies to the extent of the excess.' Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. v. Roberts, 261 N.C. 285, 134 S.E.2d 654. Plaintiff's prayer for recovery is within the limits of the compulsory coverage.

The insured, in order to be entitled to the benefits of the endorsement, must show (1) he is legally entitled to recover damages, (2) from the owner or operator of an uninsured automobile, (3) because of bodily injury, (4) caused by accident, and (5) arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of the uninsured automobile.

It is well settled that a demurrer admits, for the purpose of testing the sufficiency of the pleadings, all facts well pleaded in the complaint. If the facts alleged in the complaint, taken as true, and liberally construed in favor of the pleader, are sufficient to state a cause of action, the demurrer should be overruled. Glover v. Brotherhood of Railway, etc., 250 N.C. 35, 108 S.E.2d 78. For the purpose of this decision, it is admitted that Singletary is the owner of an uninsured automobile, and that plaintiff received bodily injuries caused by the accident alleged. Therefore, to decide whether the plaintiff has alleged facts sufficient to legally entitle him to recover damages, we must determine if the injury arose out of the 'ownership, maintenance, or use' of the motor vehicle. In making this determination, the same rules of construction apply in construing uninsured motorists coverage as apply in construing a standard liability insurance policy. 'The purpose of the statute making uninsured motorist coverage compulsory, it has been said, is to give the same protection to a person injured by an uninsured motorist as he would have had if he had been injured in an accident caused by an automobile covered by a standard liability insurance policy.' 7 Am.Jur., 2d, Automobile Insurance, § 135, p. 461.

'Insurance policies must be given a reasonable interpretation and where there is no ambiguity they are to be construed according to their terms. Huffman v. Occidental Life Insurance Co., 264 N.C. 335, 141 S.E.2d 496. Where there is ambiguity and the policy provision is susceptible of two interpretations, of which one imposes liability upon the company and the other does not, the provision will be construed in favor of coverage and against the company. Mills v. State Life & Health Insurance Co., 261 N.C. 546, 135 S.E.2d 586. * * * In the construction of contracts, even more than in the construction of statutes, words which are used in common, daily, nontechnical speech, should, in the absence of evidence of a contrary intent, be given the meaning which they have for laymen in such daily usage, rather than a restrictive meaning which they may have acquired in legal usage. In the construction of contracts the purpose is to find and give effect to the intention of the contracting parties, if possible.' Jamestown Mutual Insurance Co. v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 266 N.C. 430, 146 S.E.2d 410.

This Court has not heretofore ruled on a factual situation involving the maintenance or repair of an automobile in connection with coverage under the uninsured motorist provisions of a liability policy. However, we find where other jurisdictions have defined the conditions under which an insurer shall be liable on policies employing the terms, 'ownership,...