OPINION
Plаintiffs Sandra and Lee Hedin are Indiana residents injured in a Minnesota accident as passengers in а automobile garaged in Minnesota, owned by a Minnesota resident and operated by Lee Hеdin. They
FACTS
On February 10, 1981, plaintiffs Lee and Sandra Hedin, Indiana residents, were injured in a two-car accident in Minnesota. Lee was driving a motor vehicle owned by plaintiff Arthur Hedin who wаs a Minnesota resident. Arthur Hedin’s vehicle was registered and insured by defendant State Farm in Minnesota. The driver of the other car was uninsured.
Lee and Sandra each owned a vehicle registered and рrincipally garaged in Indiana and also insured by State Farm in Indiana. Both policies included uninsured motоrist coverage for the Indiana statutory minimum limits of $15,000 per claimant and $30,000 per accident.
Hedins and twо other passengers exhausted the Minnesota uninsured coverage on Arthur Hedin’s vehicle and the Hedins received an additional $30,000 on Lee He-din’s coverage. Hedins claim the Indiana policiеs should be “written up” to the Minnesota statutory mínimums of $25,-000/$50,000.00 on each of the two Indiana policies, therеby entitling them to additional coverage.
ISSUE
Whether insurance companies licensed to sell insurance in Minnesota are required to “write up” uninsured motorist coverage issued in other states to the minimum required by Minnesota when their insureds are involved in accidents in Minnesota.
ANALYSIS
Minnesota No-Fault Act requires that: Subdivision 1. Every insurer licensed to write motor vehicle accident reparation and liability insuranсe in this state shall, on or before January 1, 1975, or as a condition to such licensing, file with the commissionеr and thereafter maintain a written certification that it will afford at least the minimum security provided by section 65B.49 to all policyholders, except that in the case of non-resident policyholders it need only certify that security is provided with respect to accidents occurring in this state.
Subdivision 2. Nоtwithstanding any contrary provision in it, every contract of liability insurance for injury, wherever issued, covering obligations arising from ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle, except а contract which provides coverage only for liability in excess of required minimum tort liability coverages, includes basic economic loss benefit coverages and residual liability coverаges required by sections 65B.41 to 65B.71, while the vehicle is in this state, and qualifies as security covering the vehiclе.
Minn.Stat. § 65B.50 (1982).
The purpose of this statute is to ensure compliance with Minnesota’s no-fault rules by foreign insurers. Stеenson, Minnesota No-Fault Automobile Insurance, 175-176 (1982), (citing Uniform Motor Vehicle Accident Reparations Act § 9, comment (1972)) (discussing legislative history of Minn.Stat. § 65B.50).
The Hedins claim the word “security” in the last clause of section 65B.50(1) refers to all minimum insurance coverage required by section 65B.49(4), which requires insurers to providе uninsured motorist coverage in the amounts of $25,000 per claimant/$50,000 per accident in any insurance policy delivered or renewed in Minnesota. The Hedins’ interpretation would require insurance companies selling insurance in Minnesota to provide their insureds from other states the statutory minimum amоunts of uninsured motorist coverage required by § 65B.49(4) when those insureds are injured in Minnesota.
State Farm, to the сontrary, argues that the word “security” as used in section 65B.50(1) with respect to non-resident poli
The Minnesota Supreme Court has already declared the term “security” as used in the exception for non-residents in subdivision 1 of section 65B.50 to be that identified in subdivisiоn 2.
Petty v. Allstate ins. Co.,
State Farm's interpretation properly reflects the statutory scheme. This interpretation is consistent with other provisions of the No-Fault Act. Section 65B.48 makes basic economic loss benеfits and residual liability coverage, as set forth in section 65B.49(3), compulsory. Subdivision 1 of section 65B.48 requires thе non-resident owner of a motor vehicle not registered or principally garaged in Minnesota to maintain that type of security whenever the vehicle is operated in Minnesota.
Sectiоn 65B.48(1) does not require a non-resident owner of a motor vehicle operating a vehicle in Minnesota to carry uninsured motorist coverage. If a non-resident operating a vehicle in Minnesоta need not carry any uninsured coverage, it is unlikely that the legislature intended nonresidents to recover uninsured benefits beyond their own uninsured coverage.
DECISION
State Farm is not required to “write up” Lee and Sandra Hedin’s Indiana uninsured motorist policies to the Minnesota statutory minimum.
Affirmed.