PA Supreme Court rules for PA car accident victims regarding “stacking” of uninsured motorist car insurance coverage!
Jul 27th, 2007 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Pennsylvania Injury InformationNew PA car accident court ruling appears to be a win for innocent Pennsylvania car accident victims. As we have mentioned in an earlier blog entry, the PA motor vehicle law provides for “stacked” uninsured and underinsured motorist car insurance coverage. PA car insurance policies that may be stacked are considered stacked, unless the stacking option is waived. If the first named insured under the policy waives stacking, then he or she will usually get a small discount on the price of the PA car insurance.
Recently, the PA Supreme Court was asked to interpret the PA car insurance stacking law, specifically §1738 of the Motor Vehicle Code.
The facts of this case are as follows. Husband and wife owned two cars for which they previously signed a stacking waiver (no stacking). Husband and wife purchase another car. The PA car insurance company never asked husband and wife whether they wanted to waive stacking with the new car. Husband is in a PA car accident and seeks uninsured motorist coverage from all three PA car insurance policies. Can he get coverage from all three cars?
The PA Supreme Court said yes! The plain meaning of the words of the §1738 are clear. Anytime there is a “purchase” of insurance coverage a new stacking waiver must be signed. The Court ruled that when the husband and wife added the new car to the insurance policy they effectively bought new a new policy. The Court also ruled that when they bought this new policy the old stacking waiver on the older cars was not valid any longer. So husband and wife will get the combination of all three uninsured motorist insurance policies for the PA car accident.
PA car insurance companies are now forced to make changes in their procedures. Win one for the innocent PA car accident victims!
See the case, Sackett v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co. here: Sackett v. Nationwide.pdf
