Rolf Kamp v. Empire Fire and Marine Insuran, No. 13-1613 (4th Cir. 2014)

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 13-1613 ROLF KAMP, Plaintiff Appellant, v. EMPIRE FIRE AND MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant Appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Rock Hill. Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., District Judge. (0:12-cv-00904-JFA) Argued: March 18, 2014 Decided: May 7, 2014 Before WILKINSON, MOTZ, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. ARGUED: Ashley White Creech, MCGOWAN, HOOD & FELDER, LLC, Rock Hill, South Carolina, for Appellant. Theodore David Rheney, GALLIVAN, WHITE & BOYD, P.A., Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Chad A. McGowan, MCGOWAN, HOOD & FELDER, LLC, Rock Hill, South Carolina, for Appellant. Jennifer D. Eubanks, GALLIVAN, WHITE & BOYD, P.A., Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Rolf Kamp sued Empire Fire and Marine Insurance Company seeking insurance coverage for injuries he accident caused by an uninsured motorist. suffered in an The district court determined that the policy at issue did not include the coverage Kamp sought and granted summary judgment for Empire. We agree with the district court and therefore affirm. I. A. On April 8, 2011, Kamp rented a motorcycle from R&K HarleyDavidson, Inc., in Charlotte, North Carolina. Through the written rental agreement, which Kamp signed, he automatically received automobile insurance coverage up to the minimum limits required by supplemental minimum North Carolina insurance, limits. Both law. which the Kamp provided separately coverage minimum-coverage purchased beyond policy and the the supplemental policy were issued by Empire. Later that same day, while driving the motorcycle in South Carolina, turned Kamp left in was involved front severely injuring him. uninsured. eventually of in him, an accident. striking his Another driver motorcycle and The driver who caused the accident was Kamp sued her in South Carolina state court and obtained a $2,500,000 2 default judgment. He then filed an insurance claim with Empire, seeking uninsured motorist ( UM ) coverage under both the minimum-coverage and supplemental policies. Empire minimum-coverage under the paid Kamp $30,000 in but denied any policy, supplemental policy. accordance with additional According to the coverage Empire, the supplemental policy excluded UM coverage. B. Because this case turns on the scope of the coverage offered by Empire in the two policies, we briefly summarize the relevant documents and provisions. Empire issued the minimum-coverage and supplemental policies to Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc. Separate documents extend each policy to R&K, the North Carolina-based franchise from which minimum-coverage Kamp policy, rented R&K the motorcycle. rentees Under automatically the receive liability insurance coverage up to the minimum limits required by North Carolina law: $30,000 per person for bodily injury; $60,000 per accident for bodily injury; and $25,000 per accident for property coverage. which damage. Rentees receive equal amounts of UM At issue in this case is the supplemental policy, offers additional coverage beyond what the minimum- coverage policy provides. The supplemental policy coverage: Supplemental includes Rental Liability 3 three categories Insurance of ( SLI ); Personal Accident Coverage; and Personal Property Coverage. rentee may purchase coverage under any categories by paying an associated premium. or all of A these Kamp purchased all three, and he contends that the SLI category includes up to $1,000,000 in additional UM coverage. The supplemental component documents. policy s terms are set out in three The first is a master document, titled Policy Provisions, and it applies nationwide. With respect to SLI, the master document states that the policy provides excess auto liability insurance and only applies to a loss involving bodily injury and property damage caused by an accident resulting from the use of a covered rental vehicle. (internal quotation marks omitted). and J.A. 63 The master document further states that the most [Empire] will pay for ultimate net loss is the difference between the limits of liability provided by the underlying insurance 1 and the [SLI] limit shown in the Declarations. Id. at 64. document expressly excludes A separate provision in the master coverage for [l]iability arising out of or benefits payable under any uninsured or underinsured motorists law, in any state. Id. 1 Underlying insurance refers to the separate minimumcoverage policy, which provides the minimum amounts of coverage required by law. See J.A. 68. 4 The second component of the master document is the Declarations, which detail the specific coverage limits for each category of coverage. Within the SLI category, the Declarations list limits of $1,000,000 for both Bodily Injury and Property Damage Motorist Coverage. Liability Id. at 57. and Uninsured/Underinsured The Declarations specify that the premium for each of these coverages is PER CERT. 2 State-specific endorsements, the final Id. component of the supplemental policy, modify the master document as it applies to particular states. The endorsement for North Carolina (applicable to R&K) does not include any modifications relevant to this appeal, nor does it mention UM coverage. for six other states, however, purport to Endorsements add[] to modif[y] the master document by providing UM coverage. e.g., id. at 125 Uninsured/Underinsured ( Florida Motorist Liability Insurance Policy ). states--Florida, Louisiana, Endorsement Coverage to or See, Adding Supplemental According to Empire, these six New Hampshire, North Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia-- all require [that] UM coverage be offered in connection with an 2 excess liability policy. The parties agree that this notation refers to certificates of insurance, the separate documents that extend the supplemental policy to individual Harley-Davidson franchises. 5 Appellee s Br. at 25. Accordingly, Empire asserts, the endorsements modify the master document (which Empire contends does not generally include UM coverage) to compliant with the respective state laws. make the policy The limit for UM coverage in these endorsements is generally the same $1,000,000 limit listed in the Declarations, Dakota s, specify lower limits. but a few, such as North Each of the six endorsements expressly overrides the master document s UM-related exclusion. Individual Harley-Davidson franchises become policyholders of the supplemental policy through certificates of insurance. R&K s certificate states that it neither affirmatively nor negatively amends, extends or alters the coverage provided by the [supplemental policy], and further provides as follows: [R&K] is an additional supplemental policy] coverages/limits[:] . . . Policyholder for the under [the following Supplemental Liability Insurance[:] Excess Auto Liability[:] $1,000,000. J.A. 53. Limit of Coverage Additionally, the certificate states that the maximum Liability is the for the difference indicated on the policy]. Id. at 53-54. Supplemental between Declarations and the Rental Limit the of Liability Liability [minimum-coverage The certificate does not expressly mention UM coverage. C. 6 After Empire denied Kamp s claim for UM coverage under the supplemental policy, Kamp sued Empire in South Carolina state court. Kamp s complaint alleged that Empire breached the supplemental policy by refusing to pay him UM benefits up to $1,000,000. case to Invoking diversity jurisdiction, Empire removed the the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. The parties engaged in discovery and filed cross-motions for summary reference judgment. to the Relying Declarations, on the Kamp master document s asserted that the supplemental policy unambiguously provides him $1,000,000 in UM coverage. And even if the policy is ambiguous, he argued, North Carolina rules of construction require resolving any ambiguity in his favor. Alternatively, Kamp contended that North Carolina s Motor Vehicle Safety and Financial Responsibility Act (the MVSFRA ) requires reformation of the policy to include the coverage. Empire, on the other hand, argued that Kamp was not entitled to UM coverage because no such coverage was provided by the North Carolina endorsement. Empire further argued that the MVSFRA did not apply. The district court granted summary judgment for Empire. See Kamp v. Empire Fire & Marine Ins. Co., No. 3:12-cv-904-JFA, 2013 WL 310357 (D.S.C. Jan. 25, 2013). clause in the master document, 7 the Citing the exclusion court held that the supplemental policy unambiguously excludes UM coverage. at *5. Id. The court acknowledged that the Declarations include a $1,000,000 limit for UM coverage, but it determined that this limit is merely a maximum. pertains only endorsement to those expressly As such, the court concluded, it states provides for UM which a coverage. state-specific In the court s view, this understanding of the policy was consistent with the master document s description of the limits in the Declarations as representing the (emphasis added). most [Empire] will pay. See J.A. 64 As neither the North Carolina endorsement nor R&K s certificate mentions UM coverage, the court concluded that Kamp was not entitled to it. The court also observed that Kamp s construction of the supplemental policy would extend $1,000,000 of UM coverage to all rentees, in every state. In the court s view, this reading failed to account for the varying UM coverage provisions of the state-specific endorsements. For example, a reading of the master document extending $1,000,000 in UM coverage to every rentee would conflict with the North Dakota providing UM coverage only for a lesser amount. endorsement By contrast, when the supplemental policy is read to generally exclude UM coverage, there is no inconsistency in this or any other statespecific situation. Kamp, 2013 8 WL 310357, at *6. This consideration, the court held, ambiguity in the contract. Finally, court pursuant to policies to liability to MVSFRA, offer UM See alternative reform which coverage coverage. (b)(3). Kamp s declined the [a]ny perceived Id. rejecting district resolve[s] the supplemental requires in N.C. equal Gen. argument, certain amounts Stat. the policy insurance with general §§ 20-279.21(a), Relying on the text of the statute, as well as North Carolina case law, the court determined that the MVSFRA applies only to an state s underlying minimum-coverage insurance policy requirements, that not satisfies to an the excess liability policy like the supplemental policy here. Kamp appealed, arguing that the district court misconstrued both the supplemental policy and the MVSFRA. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. II. We judgment review de the district court s novo, viewing the order facts and granting the summary reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to [Kamp]. Bonds v. Leavitt, 629 F.3d 369, 380 (4th Cir. 2011). Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). 9 A. Because our jurisdiction in this case derives from diversity of citizenship, we apply South Carolina s choice-oflaw rules. See CACI Int l, Inc. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 566 F.3d 150, 154 (4th Cir. 2009). In a contract dispute, South Carolina law requires courts to apply the substantive law of the place where the contract was made. See Unisun Ins. Co. v. Hertz Rental Corp., 436 S.E.2d 182, 184 (S.C. Ct. App. 1993). Based on these principles, the parties agree that North Carolina law governs construction of the supplemental policy. Under North Carolina insurance] policy from insured. Register v. White, 599 S.E.2d 549, 553 (N.C. 2004). the law, courts point of must view of examine a [an reasonable Where the immediate context in which words are used is not clearly indicative of the meaning intended, resort may be had to other portions of the policy and all clauses of it are to be construed, if possible, so as to bring them into harmony. (internal quotation marks omitted). Ambiguous Id. coverage provisions must be construed liberally so as to afford coverage whenever possible by reasonable construction. See N.C. Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Stox, 412 S.E.2d 318, 321 (N.C. 1992). Conversely, construed ambiguous against the exclusionary insurer. provisions Id. A . . . policy s will terms be are ambiguous when they are fairly and reasonably susceptible to 10 either of the constructions for which the parties contend. Wachovia Bank & Trust Co. v. Westchester Fire Ins. Co., 172 S.E.2d 518, 522 (N.C. 1970). B. After having the benefit of oral argument and carefully reviewing the briefs, record, and controlling legal authorities, we conclude that the district court s analysis was correct. As the district court s order thoroughly explained, Kamp s proposed construction of the supplemental policy is incompatible with the state-specific endorsements. Six of these endorsements, after all, purport to modif[y] or add[] to the master document by providing the same UM coverage that Kamp contends it already includes. Only Empire s reading of the policy bring[s] . . . into harmony all of its clauses. 553. Accordingly, we conclude See Register, 599 S.E.2d at that the supplemental policy unambiguously excludes UM coverage as applied to Kamp. Moreover, because North Carolina s MVSFRA does not apply to policies, like this one, that provide only excess liability coverage, no reformation of the supplemental policy is required. See Progressive Am. Ins. Co. v. Vasquez, 515 S.E.2d 8, 13 (N.C. 1999) ( Where there are separate and distinct excess liability and underlying policies, [UM] coverage is not written into the excess liability policy by operation of law and exists only if it is provided by the contractual terms of the excess policy. ); 11 see also Piazza v. Little, 515 S.E.2d 219, 220 (N.C. 1999) (per curiam) (same). In sum, we agree with the district court s determination to award Empire summary judgment. III. The district court s judgment is therefore AFFIRMED. 12

Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.