New York

Last Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal in Allstate Ins. Co. v. Rivera.  Rivera concerns the interpretation of the Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists endorsement of Allstate's automobile insurance policy.  Allstate insured a vehicle that collided with a vehicle that was insured by a non-party insurer.

 Under the Allstate policy, the limits for both third-party bodily injury and for the supplementary uninsured/underinsured motorists endorsement were in the amount of $25,000 for each person and $50,000 for each accident, the same limits as in the non-party insurer's policy.  The non-party insurer paid the five occupants of the Allstate vehicle $50,000, thereby exhausting the policy.   Those occupants then sought additional funds under the SUM endorsement, apparently claiming that the non-party insurer had limits less than the Allstate policy because the non-party had paid the four passengers part of the policy limits.

The Appellate Division, Second Department rejected that argument, interpreting 11 NYCRR 60-2.3(f).  The Court reasoned that the non-party insurer's payments to an "other persons" injured in the accident did not reduce the amount of the bodily injury coverage provided by the non-party insurer to an amount "less than" the third-party bodily injury liability limit of the Allstate policy.

NYCL will keep you apprised of the appeal as it develops.