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Royalv.State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.

CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
Docket No.A22A1186
DecidedDecember 13, 2022
Reporter366 Ga. App. 313; 882 S.E.2d 59; 2022 Ga. App. LEXIS 554; 2022 WL 17590154
JudgesMcFADDEN, Presiding Judge. Gobeil and Land, JJ., concur.
Tags
CivilInsurance LawUninsured Motorist CoverageStackingNamed InsuredResident RelativeSummary JudgmentOCGA 33-7-11
Case Summary

Lance Royal was injured in a collision while driving a van owned by his employer, a company owned by his father. He sought uninsured-motorist benefits under the policy covering the van and 21 other State Farm policies issued to his father. The trial court granted partial summary judgment limiting coverage to the van’s policy. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Georgia law permits stacking only available coverage, and a claimant must qualify as an insured under each policy. Royal was neither a named insured nor a resident relative under the other policies; as a permissive user, he qualified only under the policy covering the vehicle he occupied. Renewal notices listing him as an “other household driver” and the van as an “other household vehicle” did not make him a named insured or create ambiguity in the policies’ declarations. The court also rejected his claim that the trial court ignored his father’s affidavit, because the order and hearing record showed it had been considered.

Opinion

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