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MOREHEAD v. DOE11/4/1996
Leca Morehead brings this action against John Doe, alleging she was injured as a result of a near collision between a vehicle operated by her husband and one operated by John Doe, an unknown driver. The trial court, following a bench trial, granted Morehead judgment against John Doe on the threshold question of whether Morehead, under all the circumstances, reported the accident to an appropriate police authority within a reasonable time after the accident's occurrence. Doe appeals. We reverse.
On July 21, 1989, while Morehead was riding as a passenger and traveling through the town of Prosperity in an automobile driven by her husband, she sustained injuries to her neck and back when her husband slammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid hitting a vehicle driven by Doe. Rather than immediately
Morehead, a licensed property and casualty agent and a nine-year employee of the Chastain Insurance Agency in Westminster, completed a loss notice form on July 25, 1989, and, as both an insured and a representative of the Chastain Insurance Agency, reported the accident to American Mutual Fire Insurance Company through the Chastain Insurance Agency. American Mutual thereafter began investigating Morehead's claim. On or about April 2, 1990, the trial court found American Mutual requested Morehead to provide it with a copy of the "accident report." After receiving this request, Morehead reported the accident four days later, on April 6, 1990, to the South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation.
We agree with Doe that Morehead did not comply with the reporting requirement of S.C. Code Ann. § 38-77-170 (Supp. 1995). Her accident occurred on July 21, 1989. She waited until April 6, 1990, to report it to an appropriate police authority. We think a period of eight months, or 259 days, is not a reasonable time for one to wait to report an automobile accident. Cf. S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-1260 (1991) (an accident resulting in injury must be reported immediately); S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-1270 (1991) (a written report must be forwarded to the Department within fifteen days of an accident where a law enforcement officer does not investigate the accident).
The trial court, however, points to "all the circumstances" and states, when they are considered, "the reporting of the accident on April 6, 1990, is reasonable." And what are these circumstances? Morehead reported the accident to American Mutual four days after its occurrence; Morehead reported the accident to a police authority "when she became aware that it was a requirement of law"; and "[American Mutual] had at its disposal the same information at the time the accident was reported to the [police authority] that [American Mutual] had when [Morehead] notified it four days after the accident."
The fact that Morehead reported the accident to American Mutual is of no moment insofar as it affects her right to bring this action, the only right we are concerned with here. The statute plainly bottoms this right of action on a report "of the accident to some police authority." The report of an accident by an insured to the insurance company is not a substitute for a report of the accident by the insured to the police. See Barfield v. Insurance Co. of North America, 59 Tenn. App. 631, 443 S.W.2d 482 (1968) (disallowing recovery under uninsured motorist coverage where the insured failed to report the accident to the police, notwithstanding the insured reported the accident to the insurer).
The fact that Morehead, herself an employee of the very insurance company through which she made her claim to American Mutual, reported the accident to a police authority after she "became aware" she had a duty to do so is not, stan
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