United States District Court, Eastern District; Docket No. 87-CV-74471-DT;
Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff; Unpublished
Official Federal Reporter Citation: Not Applicable; Link to Opinion 
STATUTORY INDEXING:
Liability Exclusions Prohibiting Stacking of Coverages [§3131]
TOPICAL INDEXING:
Not Applicable
CASE SUMMARY:
In this written Opinion granting summary judgment in favor of American States Insurance Company on stipulated facts, Judge Zatkoff affirmed the validity of an "anti-stacking" provision in American States' insurance policy.
Plaintiff was injured when struck by an automobile insured by the defendant. The insured automobile was owned by Bailow, who was insured by American States on the vehicle involved in the accident, but who also had insurance under the same policy on two other vehicles which were not involved in the accident
The Court distinguished State Farm v Ruuska (Item No. 437) on grounds that in that case, the plaintiff was seeking to stack two separate policies (one covering the driver and the other covering the owner), where here, plaintiff was seeking to obtain relief on one policy on three vehicles.
In reliance upon the decision in Auto Club v Lanyon (Item No. 850), the Court found that plaintiff should not be able to stack coverage under a master member policy on multiple vehicles, where there is a clear and unambiguous anti-stacking provision in the policy. Here, the one explicitly limited the liability arising out of "one occurrence" to the liability of one automobile, no matter how many insureds are named in the suit.
