On November 12, 1983, Barbara Sears was injured in an automobile accident while a guest passenger in an automobile ownеd and operated by Ryan Egerdahl. The accident was caused by Lorenzo Iglesias who negligently drove his vehicle into the Egerdahl vehicle. Sears has recovered the $25,000 limit under Iglesias' liability policy and the $50,000 limit under Sears' underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. Sears then sought to recover under the UIM coverage of the Egerdahl vehicle, which was insured by Grangе. Grange denied UIM coverage claiming Sears, as a mere passenger, was not exercising control over the vehicle and therefore was not "using" the vehicle within the policy definition of insured.
Sears brought a declaratory judgmеnt action in the Superior Court for King County. Summary judgment was awarded in favor of Sears; Grange appealed. The Court of Appeals reversed; we granted Sears' petition for review. Prior to oral argument, Grange made a motion tо introduce a personal injury protection (PIP) endorsement into the *638 record under RAP 9.11. This motion was passed to the mеrits.
The issue is whether a passenger "uses" a vehicle for purposes of underinsured motorist coverage. The Grange policy provides UIM coverage for any "insured" and defines insured as "each person covered as an insurеd under the bodily injury liability protection of the policy ..." There is no specific provision regarding protection for bodily injury liability. However, the liability section defines an insured as "the person(s) or group(s) protected under the
policy coverage.”
"Covered person" is defined as "anyone using your
covered auto
with
your
permission." "Using" is not defined in the policy. Relying on
Dobosh v. Rocky Mt. Fire & Cas. Co.,
The interpretation of insurance policy language is a question of law.
State Farm Gen. Ins. Co. v. Emerson,
In construing the Grange policy, we note there is no definition of "use" in the UIM endorsement or in the remainder of the poliсy. Therefore, "use" will not be interpreted to have a unique meaning. Rather, the general criteria for determining whether a person is using a vehicle and thus insured under a UIM endorsement will be followed.
Rau v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co.,
*639 (1) [T]here must be a causal relation or connection between the injury and the use of the insured vehicle; (2) the person asserting coverage must be in a reаsonably close geographic proximity to the insured vehicle, although the person need not be actually touching it; (3) the person must be vehicle oriented rather than highway or sidewalk oriented at the time; and (4) the person must alsо be engaged in a transaction essential to the use of the vehicle at the time.
(Citations omitted.) In the factual context of this case, we find all four criteria are met.
See Dobosh,
at 474 (Petrich, J., dissenting). Thus, we find Barbara Sears was using the vehicle as а passenger when her injury occurred. Furthermore, the weight of authority from other jurisdictions supports the propositiоn that passengers are users of a motor vehicle.
See, e.g., DeJarnette v. Federal Kemper Ins. Co.,
Grange's contention, agreed to by the majority in
Dobosh,
that passengers cannot be insureds under the liability section of the policy because passengers cannot be subject to liability, confuses liability with coverage.
See Kowal v. Grange Ins. Ass'n,
On September 9, 1988, nearly 5 years after the accident, Grange sought to introduce the PIP endorsement under *640 RAP 9.11(a) so it could argue, as in Dobosh, that construing language in the PIP endorsement results in an interpretation of "use" which excludes occupancy, and that this interpretation should control the interpretation of "use" in the UIM endorsement. See Dobosh, at 470-71. Under RAP 9.11(a), additional evidence may be taken by an appellate court if the following critеria are met:
The appellate court may direct that additional evidence be taken before the dеcision of a case on review if: (1) additional proof of facts is needed to fairly resolve the issues on review, (2) the additional evidence would probably change the decision being reviewed, (3) it is equitable to excuse a рarty's failure to present the evidence to the trial court, (4) the remedy available to a party through postjudgmеnt motions in the trial court is inadequate or unnecessarily expensive, (5) the appellate court remedy of granting a new trial is inadequate or unnecessarily expensive, and (6) it would be inequitable to decide the case solely on the evidence already taken in the trial court.
New evidence may be taken only if all six conditions are met.
Washington Fed'n of State Employees, Coun. 28 v. State,
We hold Grange has failed to meet the criteria of RAP 9.11(a), specifically subsections (2), (3) and (6), and decline to waive its provisions. The motion to introduce the PIP endorsement is denied. Moreover, even if we were to grant thе motion, we would find the complicated construction of the policy urged by Grange, which would use the PIP endorsement, to be unpersuasive. Additionally, the matter of the PIP endorsement is an independent issue which we refuse to entangle with the UIM coverage which is claimed by plaintiff.
See Public Employees Mut. Ins. Co. v. Mucklestone,
*641 The term "using" in the Grange policy includes passive use by a passenger, and Barbara Sears is entitled to UIM coverage as an insured.
Pearson, C.J., Utter, Brachtenbach, Dore, Callow, Durham, and Smith, JJ., and Cunningham, J. Pro Tem., concur.
