Claim stacking is allowed unless auto insurance policy forbids it, AZ Supreme Court rules
Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that if insurance companies don’t want policyholders to stack uninsured-motorist claims, they have to put it in writing.
The case involved a class-action lawsuit first brought by a woman who sought to draw from a multi-vehicle policy after her mother died in a car crash.
The plaintiff’s mother was killed in a crash with a negligent driver, who also happened to be underinsured. Because the woman had uninsured motorist coverage for both of her vehicles at the time of her death, the plaintiff submitted double the claims to CSAA General Insurance Company. The practice is called stacking, and CSAA rejected the second claim amount.
In its ruling, the court noted there is an anti-stacking provision in Arizona’s Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Act, but it requires insurance companies to explicitly forbid the practice in writing.
Combining coverage limits
Additionally, the ruling said someone who pays for uninsured motorist coverage in a multi-vehicle policy has effectively “purchased” multiple coverages for each vehicle.
Last year, a class action lawsuit was filed after CSAA General Insurance Company had refused customers from doing so, despite nothing being written in their plans forbidding the practice.
Stacking basically means that you can combine coverage limits for multiple vehicles on a policy.
For example, if one vehicle is insured for $50,000, and a second vehicle is insured for $50,000, it could be interpreted that the policy holder is paying for $100,000 of coverage.
This ruling from the state Supreme Court says that while companies can forbid stacking, their policies have to say so explicitly.
