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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Fortin6/16/1998
d not expressly provide for underinsured motorists coverage. This Court held that "Mr. Smith's rejection executed on 29 September 1991 was no longer valid and effective after the 1991 amendment and after the new selection/rejection form was issued." Id. at 597, 452 S.E.2d at 320.
The Court noted that because "the insurer is not required to offer the option to select different policy limits once the named insured has exercised that option, the legislature in effect provided that the insured must be given the opportunity to exercise that option initially." Id. at 598, 452 S.E.2d at 321. The Court then determined that the plaintiff sent the defendants a copy of the revised form NC0186 as an endorsement to their renewal policy; however, the Court found this to be a "`half-hearted'" attempt to "`offer'" the defendants the selection of policy limits provided for in the statutory amendments and concluded that Mr. Smith's earlier rejection of underinsured motorists coverage was no longer valid. Id.
We first note that the instant case involves the same statutory provision and amendment which were at issue in Maryland Casualty. As in Maryland Casualty, the plaintiff here provided the defendants with a selection/rejection form NC0186, which had been approved for policy renewals, at the time the defendants' policy was to be renewed. Mr. Fortin executed and returned this form on 16 January 1992 and did not request that underinsured motorists coverage be added at that time. However, like Maryland Casualty, form NC0186 "failed to offer the insured the selection of policy limits provided for in the statutory amendment" by providing defendants only with form NC0186 rather than form NC0185 (approved for use as an initial selection/rejection form for uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage). As a result, Mr. Fortin's rejection of underinsured motorists coverage on 15 July 1991 was not valid. Since the initial rejection was invalid, the defendants should have been provided approved form NC0185 at the policy renewal in January 1992 for selection/rejection of uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage. Therefore, at the time of Mrs. Fortin's accident on 18 November 1994, the defendants' policy included underinsured motorists coverage.
Therefore, the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants is Affirmed.
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