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350 N.C. 585

Piazza v. Little

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided June 25, 1999

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1999-06-25

Relies on Progressive American Insurance v. Vasquez

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1999-06-25

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently May 2014

10 state decisions

70199920002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CURIAM.

¶1The sole issue in this case is whether N.C.G.S. § 20-279.21(b)(4) requires an excess personal liability policy to provide underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage where such coverage is expressly excluded by the terms of the policy. Pursuant to the Court’s decision in Progressive Am. Ins. Co. v. Vasquez, 350 N.C. 386, 515 S.E.2d 8 (1999), it does not.

¶2Under the decision in Progressive, an excess liability policy such as the one at issue in this case is not a “motor vehicle liability policy” *586under the terms of N.C.G.S. § 20-279.21(a) and therefore is not subject to the requirements of N.C.G.S. § 20-279.21(b)(3) or (b)(4). Because the terms of the excess liability policy do not provide UIM benefits, and in fact expressly exclude such coverage, plaintiff cannot prevail. See Progressive Am. Ins. Co., 350 N.C. at 395, 515 S.E.2d at 13.

¶3Accordingly, the decision of the Court of Appeals affirming the trial court’s entry of summary judgment for plaintiff is reversed. This case is remanded to the Court of Appeals for further remand to the Superior Court, Pitt County for entry of summary judgment for unnamed defendant Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut.

¶4REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Justices Frye and Martin dissent for the reasons stated in the dissenting opinion in Progressive Am. Ins. Co. v. Vasquez, 350 N.C. 386, 515 S.E.2d 8 (1999).
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