Hit by a Government Vehicle? New Ohio Law Says Your Uninsured-Motorist Coverage Must Respond

Published December 29, 2022 · New Laws

Picture a snowplow, a city dump truck or a police cruiser running a red light and slamming into your car. The government driver is clearly at fault. Then you learn that the driver and the city are both immune from your claim under Ohio law, and your own insurance company tells you its uninsured-motorist coverage does not apply either. You paid for that coverage, and you are left with nothing.

Ohio's legislature has now taken a significant step to close that gap. Amended Substitute Senate Bill 56, signed on December 13, 2022, amends Ohio's uninsured-motorist statute so that auto policies and self-insurance programs may not exclude immune government drivers from the definition of an "uninsured motorist." The law takes effect March 14, 2023, and it is not in force yet. Here is what it does and what to do now.

Why government drivers are often "uninsured" in practice

Ohio's Political Subdivision Tort Liability Act, R.C. Chapter 2744, gives cities, counties, townships and other local governments broad immunity. Under R.C. 2744.02(B)(1), a political subdivision is generally liable when its employee negligently drives a vehicle on the job, which is why some crash claims against public agencies succeed; I wrote about one route in our post on city bus crashes and the immunity exception.

But the same statute gives full defenses when a police officer is responding to an emergency call, a firefighter is responding to a fire or emergency alarm, or an EMS crew is responding to a medical call, unless the driving was willful or wanton misconduct. Individual employees are also generally immune unless they acted with a malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner, under R.C. 2744.03(A)(6). In those situations, a person can be badly hurt by a driver who was entirely at fault and have no claim against the driver or the government. Our page on claims against the government in Ohio explains these rules.

How insurers used immunity against their own customers

Uninsured-motorist (UM) coverage exists for exactly this situation: you are hurt by someone at fault, and that person cannot pay. Ohio's UM statute, R.C. 3937.18, has long listed a driver who is immune under Chapter 2744 among the people who count as "uninsured motorists."

Even so, insurers found ways to deny these claims. In 2007, in Snyder v. American Family Insurance Co., the Supreme Court of Ohio held that a policy promising to pay only what the insured is "legally entitled to recover" could preclude UM benefits when the at-fault driver was immune. In 2013, in Marusa v. Erie Insurance Co., 136 Ohio St.3d 118, 2013-Ohio-1957, the Court reached the opposite result for a policy whose own definition of an uninsured vehicle expressly included immune government drivers. The Court held that the specific definition controlled over the general "legally entitled to recover" language. I explained that decision at the time in our post on Marusa.

The result was that coverage depended on the fine print. If your policy's definition included immune drivers, you were likely covered. If it was silent or excluded them, you might not be.

What S.B. 56 changes

The new law adds a direct command to R.C. 3937.18. A policy of motor vehicle insurance, or a program of self-insurance covering motor vehicles, "shall not exclude" a person who is immune under Chapter 2744 from the definition of "uninsured motorist" used in the policy or program.

Three details matter:

• It covers self-insurance programs, too. Many large employers, transit systems and fleets self-insure rather than buy policies. The rule applies to them.
• It does not apply to every policy immediately. The new rule applies to policies amended, issued or renewed, and to self-insurance programs in operation, on and after six months after the law's effective date. With a March 14, 2023 effective date, that means policies written or renewed from mid-September 2023 forward.
• It is deliberately narrow. The bill says its UM amendments should not be read to affect policies except to the limited extent stated, and no other changes are to be implied. Insurers may still argue that other policy language limits coverage. Combined with the reasoning of Marusa, which gave controlling weight to a policy's definition of an uninsured motorist, the new requirement should put injured people in a much stronger position, but courts will ultimately decide how the pieces fit.

S.B. 56 also does two things unrelated to crash coverage, according to the Legislative Service Commission: it grants municipalities and counties immunity for certain actions of hospital police officers, and it regulates indemnity clauses in public design contracts.

What this means for you

1. Check your UM coverage now. Ohio does not require you to buy UM or underinsured-motorist coverage, and the new law helps only if you have it. As I urged in January in our post on Ohio's minimum insurance limits, pull out your declarations page and look at your limits. Our guide chapter on using your own insurance walks through what to look for.
2. Ask your agent about immune government drivers. Until your policy renews under the new rule, its definition still matters. Ask in writing whether your UM coverage applies if you are hit by an immune government driver.
3. Do not accept "the city is immune" as the end of the story. Immunity has exceptions, and even where it applies, your own UM coverage may respond. Our UM/UIM claims page explains how these claims work.
4. Watch the deadlines. Your policy may require UM claims to be made within a set period after the crash, and claims against a political subdivision have their own two-year limit.