Court Okays Different Coverage Levels For Executive, Employees

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - An appeals court Monday rejected a challenge to a company's auto-insurance policy that included different levels of uninsured-motorist coverage for executives and employees.

The ruling, by a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal, stemmed from a 2011 incident in which Earl Germany was driving a vehicle insured by his employer, Hinson Oil Company Inc.

Germany suffered injuries in an accident with an uninsured motorist. Germany and his wife challenged coverage limits in the employer's policy, which included up to $500,000 in uninsured-motorist coverage for executives and their family members but a maximum of $30,000 for employees.

Gadsden County Circuit Judge James Shelfer ruled that state law allowed such differences in coverage limits, and the appeals court agreed Monday.

"Whereas the statute here would have permitted Hinson Oil to wholesale reject UM (uninsured motorist) coverage for all of its insureds, Hinson Oil chose instead to provide UM coverage with meaningful, albeit different, coverage limits for all insureds,'' said the opinion, written by Judge Timothy Osterhaus and joined by judges Brad Thomas and Lori Rowe. "Its decision to broadly provide coverage comports with the state's coverage goals; and, in fact, does so much more than if it had chosen (lawfully under the statute) to provide no UM coverage at all."

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.