Court Rules in Uninsured Motorist Policy Case

Shannon Weidemann

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A New Jersey Appellate Court ruled that a woman who was injured in a drive by shooting can receive compensation from the Uninsured Motorist portion of her car insurance even though she was just entering her car at the time of the shooting. The insurance company denied her claim originally.

But the appellate judges, citing two New Jersey Supreme Court rulings, concluded there is no requirement that the vehicle "literally strike the insured" in order for a policyholder to receive benefits.

"[T]he automobile did more than provide a setting or an enhanced opportunity for the assault. In addition to allowing the assailant to be at the place of attack, it furnished the assailant with what he must have assumed would be both anonymity and a means of escape. The assailant would not likely have committed such an act of apparently random violence use of a car," the judges wrote.

Uninsured Motorist Insurance normally covers a claim when someone is struck by a hit and run driver or by someone without auto insurance.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Car and Motorcycle Accidents.