Personal Injury Law

Uninsured Motorist Coverage Protects Injured Police Officer

By Brian F. LaBovick, Esq.

As a Personal Injury Attorney, I come across a lot of interesting cases. When I find one that involves insurance disputes, I take special note. One such case is the  recent Pease v. State Farm. This is a personal injury case involving a police officer and uninsured motorist coverage.

Jason Pease, a sergeant in the Lincoln County’s (Maine) Sheriff’s Office, had a regular take home car.  While off duty on Christmas night in 2002, Sergeant Pease responded to a dispatch call to resolve a disturbance. When he arrived, Sergeant Pease found Michael Montagana causing the problem. Mr. Montagana claimed that he had been drugged and that people were out to get him. Sergeant Pease tried to control the situation but at some point Mr. Montagana ran to the Sergeant's car, got in, and tried to drive away. Sergeant Pease attempted to stop Mr. Montagana and was run over.  As a result, Sergeant Pease suffered severe injuries.

What happened next is disconcerting:

• The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office had elected not to buy Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage to protect its officers.

• The Sheriff’s Office did have Workers Compensation coverage, but it did not adequately provide for Sergeant Pease's condition.

• Sergeant Pease had personal UM coverage through State Farm. 

• State Farm built into its UM coverage an exclusion for vehicles “furnished for [your] regular use”.  According to State Farm, Sergeant Pease was left without a remedy since Sergeant Payne was regularly allowed to take his police car home. The Maine Supreme Court, fortunately, found that once the car was stolen it was no longer supplied for his regular use, and therefore Sergeant Pease’s exclusion did not apply.

What is perhaps most interesting about this decision is that it is not the argument made by the Sergeant's attorneys. Instead, the main Supreme Court reached this conclusion on its own. This decision follows ruling from several other states finding UM coverage for people injured by a thief or carjacker, who had stolen the insured’s own vehicle. 

In the future, when you are renewing your personal car insurance policy, think twice before you try to save money and cancel or downgrade your UM coverage. It may come in handy when you least expect it. You never know...

A few cases that were cited in Pease v. State Farm include:

• State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. Nissen, 851 P. 2d 165, 167-68 (Colo. 1993)
• Comet Casualty Co. v. Jackson, 467 N.E. 2d 269 (Ill. App. Ct. 1984)
• American Prot. Insurance Co. v. Parker, 258 S.E. 2d 540, 544 (Ga. App. 1979)
• Longo v. Market Transition Facility of N.J., 741 A. 2d 149, 152-53 (N.J. App. Div. 1999)
• Guiberson v. Hartford Casualty Ins. Co., 704 P. 2d 68, 74 (Mont. 1985)
• Fontanez v. Texas Farm Bureau Ins. Co., 840 S.W. 2d 647, 650 (Tx. App. 1992)

Full post as published by LaBovick Injury Law Blog on November 12, 2007 (boomark / email).