Terrence DePrizio was fatally injured on his job by an uninsured motorist. His estate collected his employer's limits from its auto insurance carrier and then sought to recover additional damages from its umbrella insurance policy, which had been issued by United National Insurance Company. That company denied liability on the grounds that its policy did not cover excess uninsured motorist claims.
The widow had brought her underlying action in the United States District Court, which then sought a ruling as to whether the Indiana Code required an umbrella policy to provide for UM/UIM where the policy itself did not provide it.
In a lengthy opinion, the court concluded that, in the absence of an explicit statutory exclusion to the contrary, an umbrella liability policy which does not provide for UM/UIM coverage by its own terms but provides coverage for liability arising from the ownership, maintenance or use of motor vehicles, is an automobile liability policy or motor vehicle policy within the meaning of the Indiana Code. As such, the statute required such a policy to provide for UM/UIM coverage.
United National Insurance Company, Appellant, v. Adele. DePrizio--No. 94S00-9802--CQ-113--Supreme Court of Indiana--February 3, 1999--705 North Eastern Reporter 2d 455.