South Carolina Code 38-77-150. Uninsured motorist provision; defense of action by insurer; subrogation and assignment of benefits
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(A) No automobile insurance policy or contract may be issued or delivered unless it contains a provision by endorsement or otherwise, herein referred to as the uninsured motorist provision, undertaking to pay the insured all sums which he is legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle, within limits which may be no less than the requirements of § 38-77-140. The uninsured motorist provision also must provide for no less than twenty-five thousand dollars’ coverage for injury to or destruction of the property of the insured in any one accident but may provide an exclusion of the first two hundred dollars of the loss or damage. The director or his designee may prescribe the form to be used in providing uninsured motorist coverage and when prescribed and promulgated no other form may be used.
(B) No action may be brought under the uninsured motorist provision unless copies of the pleadings in the action establishing liability are served in the manner provided by law upon the insurer writing the uninsured motorist provision. The insurer has the right to appear and defend in the name of the uninsured motorist in any action which may affect its liability and has thirty days after service of process on it in which to appear. The evidence of service upon the insurer may not be made a part of the record.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 38-77-150
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Director: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
- Insured: means the named insured and, while resident of the same household, the spouse of any named insured and relatives of either, while in a motor vehicle or otherwise, and any person who uses with the consent, expressed or implied, of the named insured the motor vehicle to which the policy applies and a guest in the motor vehicle to which the policy applies or the personal representative of any of the above. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
- Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
- Motor vehicle: means every self-propelled vehicle which is designed for use upon a highway, including trailers and semitrailers designed for use with these vehicles but excepting traction engines, road rollers, farm trailers, tractor cranes, power shovels and well-drillers, and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead wires but not operated upon rails. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
- Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
- policy: means a policy or contract for bodily injury or property damage liability insurance issued or delivered in this State covering liability arising from the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle, insuring as the named insured one individual or husband and wife who are residents of the same household, and under which the insured vehicle designated in the policy is either:
(a) a motor vehicle of a private passenger, station wagon, or motorcycle type that is not used commercially, rented to others, or used as a public or livery conveyance where the terms "public or livery conveyance" do not include car pools, or
(b) any other four-wheel motor vehicle which is not used in the occupation, profession, or business, other than farming, of the insured, or as a public or livery conveyance, or rented to others. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30 - Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
(C) Benefits paid pursuant to this section are subject to subrogation and assignment if an uninsured motorist has selected the option to be uninsured by paying the fee pursuant to § 56-10-510.