I. Background of the Uninsured Motorist Act

• Library: The Law of Automobile Insurance in SC (SCBar) (2015 Ed.)

I. Background of the Uninsured Motorist Act

As the South Carolina Supreme Court stated in Criterion Insurance Co. v. Hoffmann,¹ "[t]he automobile liability insurance policy was originally designed to afford protection for the automobile owner against claims and suits arising from accidents with other motorists. Later on, in order to benefit innocent injured persons, the states began enacting Financial Responsibility Acts which, under varying provisions, made the carrying of liability insurance compulsory or nearly compulsory. Still later, the uninsured motorist endorsement became a common feature of such insurance. This endorsement was designed to close a gap in the previous coverage by protecting those injured by the financially irresponsible motorist and the hit-and-run operator or unknown motorist."²

In Laird v. Nationwide Insurance Co.,³ the South Carolina Supreme Court noted how uninsured motorist [UM] insurance is a "type of automobile insurance which came into being by legislative enactment, as a result of public concern over the increasingly important problem arising from injuries inflicted by motorists who are uninsured and financially irresponsible. Its purpose was to provide financial recompense to innocent persons who receive bodily injuries, or property damage and to the dependents of those who are killed through the wrongful conduct of uninsured motorists."⁴ "[I]ts purpose is not to provide coverage upon an uninsured vehicle to the public, but its object is to afford additional protection to an insured motorist. The uninsured motorist provision does not insure the uninsured motorist. It is a contractual liability required by statute between the insured motorist and his carrier and inures solely to the benefit of the insured."⁵

The South Carolina Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Act was enacted in 1952. The uninsured motorist provision, which was patterned after the Virginia Act,⁶ was added in 1959, although it initially only applied to policies...