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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Naomi Luebbers6/14/2005
thin the legislature's intent, as in the territorial exclusion in Dominguez, or where a claim is not completely precluded and the limit simply implicates policy limits as in Gonzales, will an exclusion on uninsured motorist coverage be considered valid. Here, State Farm's requirement that bodily injury be to an insured completely precludes damages that Brian Jr. -- an insured under the policy (as will be demonstrated later) -- may be legally entitled to recover. We conclude that the legislature did not intend to exclude uninsured motorist coverage for insureds such as Brian Jr. We hold that the policy requirement that "bodily injury must be sustained by an insured" is contrary to the statute, and thus unenforceable, in this context.
Our holding is supported by the public policy behind the uninsured motorist statute, which is to compensate those injured through no fault of their own, and to put the insured in the same position he would have been in had the tortfeasor had liability coverage. Schmick, 103 N.M. at 219, 704 P.2d at 1095. Brian Jr. suffered injuries through no fault of his own. In fact, Brian Jr. suffered one of the worst injuries a child can endure -- the loss of a parent. If the tortfeasor in this instance, that is, the one responsible for the shooting death of Father, had been insured, Brian Jr. certainly would have had a claim for recovery of damages against the shooter and perhaps his companion. Uninsured motorist coverage is intended to act in the place of a tortfeasor's liability policy, and put victims, such as Brian Jr., in the same position they would have been in if the tortfeasor had coverage. Consistent with the policy behind the statute, Brian Jr. is entitled to pursue a claim under State Farm's uninsured motorist provision in order to put him in the same position he would have been in if the shooter had been insured.
Another public policy at work here is the policy of protecting and providing for our children. A child's need for the law's protection is great. One author noted that " n this age of single parent families many children who lose a parent have no other to guide, comfort and support them on the hazardous road to responsible adulthood. If the wrongdoer who inflicts the loss is not to be held responsible, the cost will be borne by society." Beikmann v. Int'l Playtex, Inc., 658 F. Supp. 255, 258 (D. Colo. 1987). The court in Ueland v. Reynolds Metals Co., 691 P.2d 190, 192-93 (Wash. 1984) (en banc), quoting Prosser, stated " t is not easy to understand and appreciate this reluctance to compensate the child who has been deprived of the care, companionship and education of his mother, or for that matter his father, through the defendant's negligence." W. Prosser, Torts ยง 125, at 896 (4th ed. 1971). Another author stated that " or the state to declare its responsibility to protect and foster the parent-child relationship . . . [for example in its children's code], and [then] ignore it when a third party negligently injures the family unit is too anomalous to be countenanced." Reighley v. Int'l Playtex, Inc., 604 F. Supp. 1078, 1083-84 (D. Colo. 1985).
Finally, while this is a matter of first impression in New Mexico, our independent research reveals that this exact issue has been decided by a number of other states in the last few years. Not surprisingly, results vary. The two latest cases illustrate the differences well. In Gloe v. Iowa Mutual Insurance Co., 694 N.W.2d 238, 249 (S.D. 2005), the Supreme Court of South Dakota held that a policy provision limiting uninsured motorist coverage to bodily injuries suffered by insureds did not violate public policy. In Butterfield v. Norfolk & Dedham Mutual Fire Insurance Co., 860 A.2d 861, 866 (Me. 200
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