Nicky Travieso v. Ciara Crespo

Summary

The New Jersey Supreme Court held that N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.1(f), which bars commercial automobile liability policies from providing an employee less uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage than the named insured, does not require UM coverage for employees up to the policy's third-party general liability limit; the maximum UM coverage 'available under the policy' is the UM limit the corporate named insured selected, here the $15,000 statutory minimum. Because the Legislature addressed UM and UIM coverage identically in the statute, the Court's construction of N.J.S.A. 17:28-1.1(f) in its companion UIM decision decided the same day governed this UM dispute. The Zurich policy subjected Foulke and its employees to the same $15,000 UM limit, so no step-down occurred and the policy violated neither the statute nor public policy; the trial court's reformation of the policy to provide $1,000,000 in UM coverage rested on a misreading of the policy and was reversed. Justice Patterson wrote for a unanimous Court; no separate opinions were filed.