 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Stotts v. Progressive Classic Insurance Co.11/4/2003
to recover damages in tort from the owner or operator of the vehicle for causing bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death, which must be found to trigger the statute's coverage mandate. The Court, quoting favorably from Webb v. State Farm Mut. Auto Ins. Co., 479 S.W.2d 148, 152 (Mo. App. 1972), held that: "It is the public policy of Missouri established by the uninsured motorist statute, then, that each insured under such coverage have available the full statutory minimum to exactly the same extent as would have been available had the tortfeasor complied with the minimum requirements of the financial responsibility Law." Harrison, 607 S.W.2d at 145 (emphasis in original text). The Court then concluded that because the "tortfeasor, did in fact have an automobile liability policy which complied with the requirements of Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Law... the uninsured motorist statute no application." Id. We read this discussion as being consistent with the Haefner rule in that it implicitly recognizes that in determining whether the contract element of section 379.203 is satisfied, depends on whether the underlying tortfeasor, from whom the injured party would have been able to recover in tort and who should have had a liability policy in place insuring the subject vehicle against his tortuous act, is the owner or operator of the subject vehicle. In other words, if the tortfeasor is an operator, then the vehicle is uninsured if there is not a liability policy covering the tortfeasor's negligent operation of the vehicle; or if the tortfeasor is an owner, the vehicle is uninsured if there is not a liability policy covering the owner's negligent acts in causing the accident. Hence, despite what this court said in Arnold, that Harrison did not govern in answering the issue presented in Arnold and here, we believe that Harrison supports the Haefner rule, as adopted by this court first in Hendrickson and then in Arnold.
In our case, there is no dispute that there was an operator's policy that covered Schlosser's negligent operation of the James' vehicle. As such, the James' vehicle was not an uninsured motor vehicle, for purposes of section 379.203, with respect to Schlosser's negligent operation of the vehicle in causing the accident that resulted in the respondents' mother's death. Hence, uninsured motorist coverage was not available to the respondents with respect to Schlosser's negligent operation of the James' vehicle. However, as discussed, supra, the respondents, relying on the Haefner rule, contend that such coverage would be mandated by section 379.203 with respect to the accident causing the respondents' mother's death if it could be shown that it was caused, at least, in part by James' negligent entrustment of his vehicle to Schlosser. Of course, as the appellant's claim on appeal, to make a prima facie case for summary judgment on that basis, the respondents, as claimants, were required to allege undisputed material facts in their motion that demonstrated that James negligently entrusted his vehicle to Schlosser, which directly caused or contributed to cause the respondents' loss. Without such allegations of fact in their motion for summary judgment, given the undisputed circumstances of this case, the trial court could not conclude as a matter of law that there was uninsured motorist coverage, a requisite proof element of the respondents' breach of contract claim. The essential elements of a negligent entrustment action are (1) that the entrustee is incompetent by reason of age, inexperience, habitual recklessness or otherwise; (2) that the entrustor knew or had reason to know of the entrustee's incompetence; (3) that there was an entrustment of the chattel; and (4) that the negligence of
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Missouri Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|