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Safeco Ins. Co. of America v. Sanders12/4/1990
As Corrected December 7, 1990.
SAFECO INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, PLAINTIFF, AND THE AETNA CASUALTY AND SURETY COMPANY, INTERVENER,
v.
WILLIAM A. SANDERS, AS SURVIVING PARENT AND NEXT OF KIN AND IN HIS CAPACITY AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF LAURA LEE SANDERS, DECEASED; TENA HOUGHTON, AS SURVIVING SPOUSE AND NEXT OF KIN OF MICHAEL HOUGHTON, DECEASED; ASHLEY HOUGHTON, AS SURVIVING PARENT AND NEXT OF KIN OF MICHAEL HOUGHTON, DECEASED, DEFENDANTS.
Richard Carpenter and Chris Knight, Sanders & Carpenter, Tulsa, for plaintiff.
Jack Y. Goree, Goree, King, Rucker & Finnerty, Tulsa, for intervenor.
Greg A. Farrar, Farrar & Farrar, Tulsa, for defendant William A. Sanders.
R. Scott Savage and J. Randall Miller, Moyers, Martin, Santee, Imel & Tetrick, Tulsa, for defendants Tena Houghton and Ashley Houghton.
The opinion of the court was delivered by: ALMA WILSON, Justice.
On the evening of October 6, 1987, Laura Lee Sanders and Michael Houghton were seated in a 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass parked in a parking lot in the Brookside area on South Peoria Street in the City of Tulsa. They were approached and subdued through a show of force by Scott Allen Hain and Robert Wayne Lambert. Hain and Lambert forced Sanders to drive. After driving for a period of time, Sanders was directed to stop. Hain and Lambert ordered Houghton out of the car. Hain and Lambert took Houghton's money and keys to his truck which was parked at the site of the abduction, then, tied up Houghton and locked him in the trunk of the car. Either Hain or Lambert drove the car a short distance then stopped and they locked Sanders in the trunk with Houghton. Hain or Lambert then drive the car back to the site of the abduction, the parking lot on South Peoria.
From the parking lot, with Hain driving the car and Lambert driving Houghton's truck, they drove to an isolated area near Sapulpa, Oklahoma. Both vehicles were stopped. With Sanders and Houghton locked in the trunk, Hain and Lambert began cutting the fuel line of the car. Hain and Lambert completed cutting the fuel line, the fuel line was ignited, and the car burned. Hain and Lambert left the scene in Houghton's truck. Sanders and Houghton died as a result of thermal burns and smoke inhalation sustained while in the trunk of the car.
The 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass was insured by Safeco Policy No. J 296000, purchased by William Sanders, father of Laura Lee Sanders. The policy provides $100,000/$300,000 uninsured motorist coverage. Houghton's 1985 Isuzu truck was insured by Aetna Policy No. 218SX2367168PCH.
Personal representatives of the insureds (insureds) submitted claims to Safeco Insurance Company of America (insurer) for uninsured motorist coverage for the deaths. Safeco denied the claims and filed this declaratory judgment action in the federal district court. The Aetna Casualty and Surety Company (insurer) was permitted to intervene in this action. Upon submission of proposed undisputed facts and legal authorities from the parties, the federal district court certified the relevant facts and four questions of law to this Court, pursuant to the Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, 20 O.S. 1981 § 1601 , et seq.
The certified questions present first impression issues as to whether loss (personal injury or death) is sufficiently related to the use of a motor vehicle by an uninsured operator to come within UM coverage as contemplated by 36 O.S. 1981 § 3636 . Our decisional insurance law and the plethora of decisions from our sister jurisdictions inv
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