In 2013, Rachel Dixon was driving a car owned by her boyfriend, Rene Oriental-Guillermo when she was involved in an accident with a vehicle in which Priscila Jimenez was a passenger, and was being driven by Alli Licona-Avila. At the time of the accident, Dixon resided with Oriental-Guillermo, who had purchased an auto policy through Safe Auto Insurance Company. The Policy contained an unlisted resident driver exclusion (“URDE”), which excluded from coverage any individuals who lived with, but were not related to, the policyholder, and whom the policyholder did not specifically list as an additional driver on the insurance policy.
Jimenez filed a personal injury lawsuit against Dixon, Oriental-Guillermo, and Licona-Avila. Safe Auto filed a declaratory judgment complaint seeking a judicial determination as to the enforceability of the URDE with respect to Dixon.
The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Safe Auto, finding the URDE unambiguous, valid, and enforceable, and concluding that Safe Auto had no duty under the Policy to defend or indemnify Dixon in the underlying personal injury lawsuit. This was appealed to the Superior Court, however, the Superior Court affirmed the order of the trial court in a divided, published opinion. Thereafter, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court and held that the URDE at issue in this case was enforceable.
Safe Auto Insurance Company v. Oriental-Guillermo, 26 MAP 2018 (Pa. Aug. 20, 2019).
Questions regarding this case can be sent to David Friedman.
