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Hedges v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.12/14/2004
{ } Plaintiff-appellant, Mary Hedges, appeals from the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas granting summary judgment to defendant-appellee, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.
{ } The facts and procedural history relevant to this case are as follows. On January 1, 2001, Bruce Hedges was fatally injured when the bicycle he was riding was struck by a truck operated by John Leasure, Jr., an underinsured motorist. Plaintiff is the decedent's mother. Plaintiff was not involved in the accident, nor did she sustain bodily injury as a result of the accident. At the time of the accident, plaintiff was the named insured under two policies of insurance issued by defendant -- an automobile liability policy and an umbrella policy. Both policies also provided uninsured/underinsured motorist ("UM/UIM") coverage. It is undisputed that the umbrella policy applied only to losses payable by the insured's underlying automobile coverage. The automobile policy provided, in relevant part, that defendant would pay "compensatory damages, including derivative claims, which are due by law to [the insured] or a relative from the owner or driver of an uninsured[/underinsured] motor vehicle because of bodily injury suffered by [the insured] or a relative." "Relative" was defined as "one who lives regularly in [the insured's] household who is related to [the insured] by blood, marriage or adoption." The parties agreed that the decedent was not a named insured in plaintiff's policies and did not live in plaintiff's household.
{ } Plaintiff filed a UM/UIM claim with defendant for damages arising out of her son's death. After defendant denied the claim, plaintiff filed a complaint against defendant seeking, inter alia, a declaration of her rights under the policies.
{ } Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. In her motion, plaintiff contended that she was entitled to UM/UIM coverage under the policies pursuant to the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in Moore v. State Farm Auto. Mut. Ins. Co. (2000), 88 Ohio St.3d 27, which held that R.C. 3937.18(A)(1), as amended by S.B. No. 20, effective October 20, 1994, precludes an insurer from limiting UM/UIM coverage in such a way that an insured must suffer bodily injury, sickness, or disease in order to recover damages from the insurer. Id. at syllabus. Plaintiff argued that, pursuant to Moore, the policy language purporting to limit UM/UIM coverage in such a way that an insured must suffer bodily injury in order to recover violated R.C. 3937.18(A)(1).
{ } Defendant argued that Moore was inapplicable because it interpreted a different version of R.C. 3937.18(A)(1) than that applicable to the instant case. Defendant maintained that the applicable version of R.C. 3937.18(A)(1), as amended by H.B. No. 261, effective September 3, 1997, effectively permits an insurer to limit UM/UIM coverage in such a way that an insured must suffer bodily injury in order to recover from the insurer. Accordingly, defendant argued that the policy language precluded plaintiff from recovering UM/UIM benefits. Defendant asserted that plaintiff's claim did not satisfy the policy provision because the insured, plaintiff, did not sustain bodily injury as a result of the accident, and the decedent was neither a named insured under the policy nor a "resident relative" as defined in the policy.
{ } The trial court granted summary judgment to defendant, expressly finding Moore inapplicable to the H.B. No. 261 version of R.C. 3937.18 and implicitly finding that the amended version of the statute did not preclude insurers from limiting UM/UIM coverage to claims arising from bodily injury sustained by an insured. Having so found, the court determi
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