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Alfa Insurance Corp. v. Ryals7/21/2005
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - INSURANCE
DISPOSITION: REVERSED AND RENDERED - 07/21/2005
EN BANC.
. Pursuant to a jury verdict, the Forrest County Circuit Court awarded $420,000 in uninsured motorist benefits to Kenneth Wayne Ryals, administrator for the wrongful death beneficiaries of Kenneth and Georgia Ryals. Alfa Insurance Corporation, the uninsured motorist insurance carrier, appealed, and a divided Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court judgment. See Alfa Ins. Corp. v. Ryals, 2004 WL 1326702 (MisS.Ct. App. June 15, 2004). Three judges dissented, concluding that the alleged negligent act did not cause the accident and that the accident did not arise from the use of an uninsured vehicle. Id. at *7 - *12 (Griffis, J., dissenting). After certiorari was granted, Alfa challenges the Court of Appeals' judgment on three grounds: (1) whether the case of City of Jackson v. Perry, 764 So. 2d 373 (Miss. 2000), was binding precedent; (2) whether UM benefits are recoverable when the uninsured motorist is immune from the plaintiff's claims; and (3) whether the accident arose out of the "use," as defined under the policy, of an uninsured vehicle. We find that the evidence was legally insufficient to prove that accident arose out of the "use" of the truck and therefore reverse and render. Because this one issue is dispositive, we do not address the other two issues.
FACTS
. Kenneth and Georgia Ryals were killed as a result of a dead pine tree falling on their vehicle as they were traveling north on U. S. Highway 49 near Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Kenneth Wayne Ryals, their son and co-administrator of their estates, filed two complaints on behalf of the Ryalses' wrongful death beneficiaries against the Mississippi Department of Transportation alleging that MDOT failed to provide safe highways and that its employees left a dead pine tree in an unsafe condition after unsuccessfully attempting to knock it down with a platform or bucket truck. Alfa, the Ryalses' auto insurance carrier, was added as a co-defendant. The beneficiaries alleged that Alfa was liable to them for the Ryalses' uninsured motorist benefits based on MDOT's admission that its bucket truck was uninsured. After MDOT settled the beneficiaries' claims against it for $250,000, the statutory maximum under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, the case went to trial, and a jury awarded $420,000 in uninsured motorist benefits in favor of the beneficiaries and against Alfa. After the Court of Appeals affirmed the circuit court's judgment, we granted certiorari.
DISCUSSION
. In reviewing the denial of a motion for a judgment notwithstanding a verdict, we will consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, giving that party the benefit of all favorable inferences that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence. If the facts so considered point so overwhelmingly in favor of the moving party that reasonable jurors could not have arrived at a contrary verdict, we are required to reverse and render. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence in support of the verdict, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair-minded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, affirmance is required. 3M Co. v. Johnson, 895 So. 2d 151, 160 (Miss. 2005).
WHETHER THE ALLEGED NEGLIGENT ACT TOOK PLACE DURING THE "USE" OF AN UNINSURED AUTOMOBILE.
. The uninsured motorist coverage provision of the Alfa policy provides as follows:
We will pay damages for bodily injury to a covered person if the covered person is legally ent
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