Janie Toomer sued Edgar Rosenberry for injuries she suffered in an automobile collision that allegedly was his fault. She served her uninsured motorist “UM” carrier, Allstate Insurance Company, with the complaint. Toomer later settled with Rosenberry’s liability insurance carrier, USAA, for the amount of his policy limit. Allstate moved to dismiss, arguing that Toomer’s UM policy limit was equal to Rosenberry’s liability policy limit, and the trial court granted Allstate’s motion. Toomer contends that the court erred because the proceeds of her settlement with USAA will be reduced by the amount of a Medicare lien. We agree with Toomer and reverse. Allstate’s motion to dismiss was based on the general rule that the proper way to determine UM exposure is to subtract the total liability coverage available to the injured party from the total UM coverage.1 Because Toomer’s UM policy limit was the same as Rosenberry’s liability policy unit, Allstate argued that it had no UM exposure. Toomer responded that Medicare had paid approximately $8,600 of her collision-related medical bills and was now asserting a lien against her settlement with USAA to recover those payments. Citing our supreme court’s decision in Thurman v. State Farm Mut. Automobile Ins. Co. ,2 Toomer argued that Rosenberry was underinsured by the amount of the Medicare lien and that she should be able to recover that amount under her UM policy with Allstate. The trial court, however, concluded that Thurman did not apply.
In Thurman , Gail Thurman, a United States Postal Service “USPS” postal carrier, was injured when a vehicle driven by Mamie Brown struck her postal truck. Thurman received medical and income benefits from USPS’s workers’ compensation and group medical insurance carriers. Thurman and her husband later sued Brown and settled with Brown’s liability insurance carrier for approximately $96,000. USPS’s insurance carriers asserted subrogation rights from the proceeds of the settlement, so the Thurmans ultimately received only about $61,000. They then sued their UM carrier, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, arguing that Brown was underinsured because their $75,000 UM policy exceeded the net proceeds of their settlement with Brown’s liability carrier. The trial court awarded summary judgment to State Farm and we affirmed.3
