Babcock v. Adkins

In Babcock v. Adkins, 1984 OK 84, 695 P.2d 1340, the Oklahoma Supreme Court held a passenger in an insured vehicle who is entitled to uninsured motorist coverage, solely because of his status as a passenger, may not stack uninsured motorist coverage under separate policies purchased by the owner of the involved vehicle. The Court cited Keel v. MFA Insurance Co., 1976 OK 86, 553 P.2d 153 and its progeny clearly limiting stacking to a named insured as determined by each policy's provisions. The "purchaser of a policy would not have any legitimate contractual expectation that one insured solely by reason of his presence in a vehicle would be entitled to a recovery under other policies belonging to the named insured covering vehicles which were not involved in the accident." The decision in Babcock pointed out the public policy behind this viewpoint is clear: "The purpose for allowing a named insured the benefit of all policies for which he has paid premiums is to provide a fulfillment of the contractual expectations that the party had when purchasing those policies."