Court sides with driver in car-on-box accident
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A box in the road could be considered, for insurance purposes, as an uninsured vehicle, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in a narrow, but precedential, ruling that stemmed from a 2008 accident on Route 51 in Beaver County.
Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance denied policyholder Larry G. Squires coverage under his uninsured motorist policy after he endured a car-on-box accident on a remote section of the road, the 3rd Circuit judges wrote. U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti agreed with Allstate, finding that even if the box was assumed to fall from an unidentified vehicle, its tumble and subsequent collision with another car couldn't be considered to be "arising out of" the use of a car.
The judge erred by finding in Allstate's favor early in the proceedings, the 3rd Circuit ruled. If Mr. Squires shows that the accident wouldn't have occurred but for the box, the case should proceed, it found.
The 3rd Circuit decision made clear that a box in the road is not always an uninsured vehicle -- just that in this case, it might be one, and a judge should hear more evidence before making that call. The case now goes back to U.S. District Court.
First Published January 28, 2012 12:00 am
