MISSISSIPPI SUPREME COURT FINDS THAT LOSS OF CONSORTIUM CLAIMS ARE PART OF THE PER PERSON LIMITS FOR UIM COVERAGE

The Mississippi Supreme Court in Rylee v. Progressive Gulf Insurance Co., 2017 WL 949545 (Miss. Mar. 9, 2017) found that a UIM policy’s “each person” limit applied not only to a husband’s bodily injury claim, but also to the wife’s loss of consortium claim, i.e., loss of consortium claims are part of the “each person” limit and are not afforded a separate “each person” limit. The court noted that on two separate prior occasions, the court had interpreted similar policy language and reached the same conclusion that to recover more than the “each person” limit for one person, there must be more than one person who sustained bodily injury during the accident. Citing State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Co. v. Acosta, 479 S.2d 1089, 1090‑91 (1985) and Old Sec. Cas. Insurance v. Clemmer, 455 S.2d 781, 782 (Miss. 1984). Because the wife in the case at bar was not with her husband during the crash, her husband was the only person who sustained bodily injury in the accident. Therefore, the wife’s loss of consortium claim fell under the “each person” policy limit available to the husband. The court also noted that the 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals relied upon the Acosta decision when it rejected a similar claim. See, Reed v. State Farm Mutual Insurance, 784 F.2d 577, 578-79 (5^th Cir. 1986).