Personal Injury Law

Missouri Uninsured Motorist Claims resulting from Accidents Caused Solely by or Contributed to by Missouri Uninsured Motorists

By Benjamin J. Sansone, Esq.

Often Missouri auto injury cases result from the negligence of an uninsured motorist. Under Missouri injury law, an uninsured motorist is exactly that, a driver with no insurance, however, an uninsured motorist is also an unidentified driver or vehicle; a vehicle that causes or contributed to the cause of a Missouri auto crash and injury but keeps on driving and remains unidentified.

Missouri uninsured motorist claims raise an abundance of issues unique to uninsured motorist claims. As a Missouri personal injury lawyer, I routinely handling Missouri and Illinois auto crash cases, I see my fair share of uninsured motorist cases. Many issues that arise are set-off, stacking, and anti stacking clauses. Uninsured motorist coverage applies to the person, not the vehicle. Therefore, if you are injured by an uninsured motorist in Missouri, and your household has 3 cars all with 25,000 UM coverage, then there is potentially $75,000 in coverage, as the auto insurance policies "stack".

Having an experienced Missouri personal injury lawyer when uninsured motorist is an issue is very important. In my own experience many insurance adjusters will claim set off or anti-stacking (not allowing coverage from multiple policies) to deny Missouri auto accident uninsured motorist coverage, often citing clauses from the insurance policy. However, under Missouri injury law, anti-stacking for Uninsured motorist coverage is against public policy and any insurance policy clause attempting to prevent stacking is void and unenforceable in Missouri.

Currently, I am dealing with a St Louis Missouri motorcycle accident wherein the UM claim is complicated, the injured cyclist was caused to crash as the result of two vehicles, one stopped and was identified the other kept driving. Therefore, not only is the one driver's liability policy in play, but my client's Missouri uninsured motorist coverage for every policy in his household is in play. In this case he had 2 policies with uninsured motorist coverage, his motorcycle policy allowing $25,000 in UM coverage and his auto policy with $100,000 in UM coverage, so those two policies are stacked allowing for an additional $125,000 in recovery over and above the other driver's liability policy.

Recent law dealing with Uninsured Motorist Claims in Missouri:

Foster child not "relative" for purposes of Missouri uninsured motorist claim, therefore no stacking of other policies in household. Kertz v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 236 S.W.3d 39 (Mo.App. E.D. 2007).
Missouri auto personal injury victim was a foster child and brought action against insurer seeking to stack UM of his foster parent's coverage as he was a member of the household. The court ruled that a foster child was not a "named insured" and could not stack UM coverage. Missouri law requiring stacking only for "named insured" and "relatives" or "spouse" of the primary policy holder. An "occupancy insured", being a non relative living in the same household, is not entitled to stack UM coverages. The foster child was not related to or legally adopted by the insured, therefore the foster child constituted only an "occupancy insured", and no stacking.

Williams v. Silvola, 234 S.W.3d 396 (Mo.App. W.D. 2007). Motor vehicle collision and personal injury case in Missouri. The insured lived in Kansas and owned seven cars all insured by Farmers. The cars were all registered and insured in Kansas. Missouri injury law requires stacking of UM coverage; however Kansas prohibits stacking, so which applies? The court "stacked" the limits of all seven policies because the accident and injury took place in Missouri.

Anti Stacking of UM Policies Against Missouri Law:

Missouri public policy prohibits anti-stacking clauses for multiple uninsured motorist coverages. Cameron Mutual v. Madden, 533 S.W.2d 538 (Mo. banc 1976). An insured can stack multiple policies from several different vehicles. Gallaway v. Farmers Insurance Company, 523 S.W.2d 339 (Mo. App. 1975).

Full post as published by Missouri Injury Law Blog on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).