Court Upholds UM/UIM Coverage Exclusion for Fatal Motorcycle Accident Under Insurance Policy

Following a fatal motorcycle accident, the appellant sought, and was denied, uninsured/underinsured vehicle (UM/UIM) coverage under an Erie insurance policy purchased by Elissa J. Kennedy and her husband, Dennis Kennedy. The trial court granted judgment for Erie on the ground that such benefits were barred by an exclusion applicable when an insured has suffered damages while occupying a vehicle owned by a relative and not covered under the policy.

This case arose in 2023, when Elissa J. Kennedy sustained fatal injuries from a single-vehicle crash. At the time, she was riding as a passenger on a motorcycle owned and operated by her husband, Dennis Kennedy, who also did not survive. The motorcycle was covered by a single-vehicle policy issued by Progressive on which Dennis Kennedy was the only named insured. The policy also provided non-stacked UM/UIM coverage.

The appellant recovered under the Progressive policy for the liability insurance limits but did not recover under the UM/UIM provision. The appellant then sought to recover additional benefits under a UM/UIM provision in an Erie household auto insurance policy, which provided for stacking, in which Elissa J. Kennedy and Dennis Kennedy were both named. The Erie policy stated that it would not cover an insured’s damages caused by a “miscellaneous vehicle” owned by a relative and not insured for UM/UIM coverage under the Erie policy.

Following the opinion established in Erie Ins. Exchange v. Minoe, 289 A.3d 524 (Pa. 2023), the court determined that the appellant was barred from recovery under the Erie policy as the motorcyclist had not received any UM/UIM benefits under his own motorcycle policy, so there was nothing for the UM/UIM benefits of the household policy to “stack on” to. Thus, the trial court did not err, and the order on review was upheld.