From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

Barras v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

Court of Appeals of Georgia
Sep 16, 1968
163 S.E.2d 759 (Ga. Ct. App. 1968)

Summary

precluding uninsured motorist coverage by following uninsured motorist statutes that defined or contemplated uninsured motor vehicles as autos other than those owned by the insured

Summary of this case from Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Kim

Opinion

43834.

ARGUED SEPTEMBER 5, 1968.

DECIDED SEPTEMBER 16, 1968.

Action on insurance policy. Chatham Superior Court. Before Judge Harrison.

Joseph B. Bergen, for appellants.

Hitch, Miller, Beckmann Simpson, Luhr G. C. Beckmann, Jr., for appellee.


Under the Georgia statute requiring that automobile liability insurance policies include uninsured automobile coverage, and under the uninsured automobile coverage of the policy in this case, an automobile owned by the insured and being operated by a permissive driver is not an "uninsured automobile."

ARGUED SEPTEMBER 5, 1968 — DECIDED SEPTEMBER 16, 1968.


This was an action for a declaratory judgment seeking an adjudication that the uninsured automobile coverage of an insurance policy was applicable under the facts alleged. The defendant insurer issued to the plaintiff husband a policy on an automobile owned by him, covering, among other things, bodily injury and property damage liability to the insured (including by definition the wife of the named insured) caused by accident and arising out of the use of an uninsured automobile. The plaintiff wife was injured while riding in the automobile named in the policy, when it was being driven with her permission by a friend who carried no insurance covering her use of the automobile.


The policy defined "uninsured automobile" as "(1) a land motor vehicle with respect to the ownership, maintenance or use of which (a) there is no bodily injury liability and property damage liability bond or insurance policy in the amounts specified in the Georgia Automobile Financial Responsibility Act, applicable at the time of the accident with respect to any person or organization legally responsible for the use of such vehicle ... but the term `Uninsured automobile' shall not include (i) an automobile defined herein as an `insured automobile'; (ii) a land motor vehicle owned by the named insured or by any resident of the same household; . . ." "Insured automobile" was defined as "an owned automobile, provided the use thereof is by such named insured or spouse or any other person to whom such named insured or spouse has given permission to use such automobile, if the use is within the scope of such permission, . . ."

A Georgia statute (Ga. L. 1963, p. 588, as amended; Code Ann. § 56-407.1 (a)) requires, unless rejected by the insured named in the policy, coverage of the insured for "all sums which he shall be legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle." In this statute "the term `uninsured motor vehicle' means a motor vehicle, other than a motor vehicle owned by or furnished for the regular use of the named insured, the spouse of any such named insured . . ." Code Ann. § 56-407.1 (b). As applied to the facts alleged the coverage of the policy is consistent with the Georgia statute and does not include liability to the plaintiffs arising out of the permissive use of the insured's automobile by a friend who carried no policy covering its use.

The Oregon statute applicable in Bowsher v. State Farm Fire c. Co., 244 Ore. 549 ( 419 P.2d 606), cited by counsel, did not expressly exclude automobiles owned by the insured from its requirement for uninsured automobile coverage. We note that the policy in the present case excludes from the coverage for the owned automobile and non-owned automobiles liability for bodily injury to the insured or any member of his family residing in the same household. The policy considered in Chicago Ins. Co. v. American Southern Ins. Co., 115 Ga. App. 799 ( 156 S.E.2d 143), in which this court held the policy insuring a permissive driver as an additional insured covered the driver's liability for negligence toward the owner, who while riding in the automobile had permitted him to drive, did not have such an exclusion.

The trial court did not err in finding that the policy did not cover liability to the plaintiffs under the facts alleged.

Judgment affirmed. Bell, P. J., and Quillian, J., concur.


Summaries of

Barras v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

Court of Appeals of Georgia
Sep 16, 1968
163 S.E.2d 759 (Ga. Ct. App. 1968)

precluding uninsured motorist coverage by following uninsured motorist statutes that defined or contemplated uninsured motor vehicles as autos other than those owned by the insured

Summary of this case from Mercury Indemnity Co. v. Kim

In Barras v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 118 Ga. App. 348, 163 S.E.2d 759, and Barnes v. Powell, 129 Ill. App.2d 16, 262 N.E.2d 334, the holdings were similar to those reached now by this court in substantially similar circumstances.

Summary of this case from Allen v. West American Insurance Company
Case details for

Barras v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance

Case Details

Full title:BARRAS et al. v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY

Court:Court of Appeals of Georgia

Date published: Sep 16, 1968

Citations

163 S.E.2d 759 (Ga. Ct. App. 1968)
163 S.E.2d 759

Citing Cases

American c. Ins. Co. v. Parker

(b) In such a clause the term "uninsured automobile" means one as to which there is no insurance applicable…

Southern General Insurance Company v. Thomas

It is not appellee's own automobile that is the alleged "uninsured motor vehicle" but Grissom's. Thus,…