Friday, October 8, 2021

Latest Stacking Case from Pennsylvania Superior Court


In the case of Franks v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., No. 2784 EDA 2019 (Pa. Super. Sept. 24, 2021) (en banc) (Op. by Lazarus, J.) (dissenting Op. by McCaffery, J.), a majority of an en banc Pennsylvania Superior Court panel reversed a prior three (3) judge Pennsylvania Superior Court’s panel’s decision and held that the removal of a vehicle from a policy does not constitute a purchase of coverage that requires the insured to be provided the opportunity to wave stacking in writing at the time of that removal of the vehicle.

After providing a detailed review of Pennsylvania jurisprudence on the issue of stacking under the trilogy of Sackett cases, all of which involved the issue of adding or replacing vehicles on auto insurance policies, the Court in this Franks case noted that there did not appear to be any prior decisions covering the facts of this case which involved the removal of a vehicle from a multi-vehicle policy.

In the end, the Court in this case found that the deletion of a vehicle from the policy could not be viewed in any way as a "purchase" of coverage as that term is utilized under 75 Pa.C.S.A. Section 1738 so as to trigger any need to secure new written stacking waivers.

Anyone wishing to review a copy of this decision may click this LINK.


I send thanks to Attorney Thomas Helbig for bringing this case to my attention via an email blast to all of his contacts.

Source of image:  Photo by James Sutton on Unsplash.com.

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