Limitations of Liability within Uninsured Motorist Insurance Policies and Their Validity under Mandatory Statutes

With the widespread adoption of mandatory uninsured motorist protection statutes, courts were asked to construe certain provisions of the standard policy which sought to limit the recovery by an insured to that which he would have received from the uninsured motorist had he been insured to the minimum limits prescribed by the financial responsibility law. A slight majority of the courts have looked with disfavor on such limitations, generally relying on public policy arguments. The others have upheld the provisions, appealing to what they concluded was the real purpose of the legislation. The purpose of this article is to summarize the reasoning of the courts, to recommend that the courts upholding such provisions have reached the better resolution, and finally, to propose corrective legislative action.