Oregon Court of Appeals Holds that A Single “Each Accident” Limit Applied To Insured’s UIM Claim

In Wright v. Turner, 2012 WL 5286179 (Or App Oct. 24, 2012), the insured was a passenger in a truck that was in a motor vehicle accident. The truck was hit successively by two vehicles. The insured made a claim under her underinsured motorist (“UIM”) coverage, which had $500,000 “each accident” limits. The insured contended that she was entitled to two “each accident” limits because two vehicles were involved, thus constituting two “accidents” for the purpose of the UIM coverage. The Court of Appeals rejected her argument. As a threshold matter, the court noted that both parties agreed that the question of the number of accidents was one of law rather than one of fact. Next, the court held that the insured, in seeking coverage, had the burden of proof on the issue. Turning to the issue at hand, the court held that the insured had failed to satisfy here burden of demonstrating causation:

And plaintiff, as the party with the burden of presentation and persuasion with respect to establishing the availability of coverage for two accidents instead of one, was obligated at least to adduce prima facie evidence that the second collision was not merely proximately derivative of the causation of the first.

Plaintiff failed to meet that prima facie burden. That is so because the record is completely devoid of any evidence regarding the cause of the second collision…

Id. at 12.