A federal district court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a vehicle driven by a Lyft driver was involved in two accidents, entitling the passenger to recover twice the amount of insurance benefits previously paid to her by two separate insurers.
The Case
Robin Busby was a passenger in the backseat of a 2013 Nissan Altima driven by Thomas Curtain, whom Ms. Busby had hired as a driver through Lyft, Inc.
According to Ms. Busby, Mr. Curtain drove his vehicle into the rear of the car in front of him, which had been stopped in traffic. Ms. Busby also asserted that after Mr. Curtain hit the car in front of him, a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan driven by Gerald Crossley collided with the rear of Mr. Curtain's vehicle.
Mr. Curtain's vehicle was equipped with an event data recorder that recorded "two separate events."
The data established that approximately one second had passed between the two crashes. The data also demonstrated that Mr. Curtain had been travelling in the road's left lane for at least six seconds before Mr. Crossley hit the rear of Mr. Curtain's car. Mr. Curtain's car was not moving and had come to a complete stop at the time it was rear-ended by Mr. Crossley, according to the data recorder.
As a result of the first impact, Ms. Busby had a delta force of 18 applied to her; that is, the vehicle's speed had been abruptly reduced by 18 miles per hour due to the impact. (Delta force is the change in velocity of an object during a collision event.)
As a result of the second impact, the delta force applied to her was 13; that is, the speed of Mr. Curtain's vehicle had accelerated forward by 13 miles per hour due to the impact.
Ms. Busby sued Mr. Curtain and Mr. Crossley. She settled her claims, and Steadfast Insurance Company, which provided insurance coverage for Lyft drivers such as Mr. Curtain, paid Ms. Busby the policy limit for an "accident" – $1 million.
In addition, Mr. Crossley's insurer tendered to Ms. Busby the limits of Mr. Crossley's liability coverage, which was $300,000 in liability coverage.
Ms. Busby's personal auto insurer, USAA Casualty Insurance Company, paid her the $200,000 stacked per person UIM limit available under her policy.
Ms. Busby then sued Steadfast and USAA Casualty, seeking an additional $1 million in UIM coverage from Steadfast and an additional $200,000 in UIM coverage from USAA for what she termed the "second accident involving the Crossley vehicle."
The insurers countered that the events constituted one accident and, therefore, there was no coverage remaining.
The issue before the court was whether Ms. Busby was involved in one or two motor vehicle accidents for purposes of insurance coverage.
The District Court's Decision
The district court ruled that there were two accidents.
In its decision, the district court explained that Pennsylvania courts had adopted the "cause" approach to determine the number of accidents for purposes of insurance coverage. Under this approach, the district court continued, the general rule was that an occurrence was determined by the cause or causes of the resulting injury. Using this analysis, the district court continued, required that it ask if there was "but one proximate, uninterrupted, and continuing cause which resulted in all of the injuries and damage."
Here, the district court found, there were "two independent actors" that had caused "two separate collisions."
The district court reasoned that the Lyft vehicle driven by Mr. Curtain had crashed into the vehicle ahead of it and had come to a complete stop with Mr. Curtain in full control before the Crossley vehicle hit the Lyft vehicle. The district court added that although the time between the two crashes was only a second, it was enough time for Ms. Busby to be thrown forward as a result of the Lyft crash and then again be affected as a result of the Crossley crash.
The district court said that even if Mr. Curtain had stopped the Lyft vehicle prior to striking the back of the vehicle in front of him, Mr. Crossley still would have rear-ended Mr. Curtain's vehicle. In the district court's view, the crash allegedly caused by Mr. Curtain was "not the proximate cause" of the crash allegedly caused by Mr. Crossley.
Moreover, the district court continued, there simply was not "one proximate, uninterrupted, and continuing cause which resulted in all of the injuries and damages."
Accordingly, the district court granted Ms. Busby's motion for partial summary judgment that she was involved in two accidents and it denied the insurers' motions that only one accident had taken place.
The case is Busby v. Steadfast Ins. Co., No. 19-2225 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 31, 2019). Attorneys involved include: For ROBIN BUSBY, Plaintiff: GABRIEL Z. LEVIN, LEAD ATTORNEY, LEVIN & ZEIGER, PHILADELPHIA, PA. For STEADFAST INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant: ALLISON PERRY, DICKIE MCCAMEY & CHILCOTE PC, PHILADELPHIA, PA; JEFFREY H. QUINN, DICKIE, MCCAMEY & CHILCOTE, PC, PHILA., PA. For USAA CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant: CHRISTINE P. BUSCH, JAMES H. COLE, MARSHALL DENNEHEY WARNER COLEMAN & GOGGIN, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].