Wang-Yu Lin v. Shin Yi Lin, 224 W. Va. 620

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed a circuit court judgment declaring that supplemental liability insurance purchased with a rental vehicle covered injuries sustained by Wang-Yu Lin. The court held that the appellants waived their argument that a rental-insurance-specific statute displaced West Virginia's omnibus insurance statute because they had not raised that issue below. The court therefore affirmed without deciding whether the omnibus statute applies to automobile rental insurance policies.

Holdings

1. The court will not decide a nonjurisdictional question that was neither raised before nor considered and decided by the lower court.
2. The court declined to decide whether West Virginia Code § 33-12-32 applies to the rental vehicle liability policy instead of West Virginia Code § 33-6-31(a), because the issue was not preserved.
3. The circuit court's order granting summary judgment and declaratory relief to Wang-Yu Lin was affirmed.
4. The court rejected the appellants' argument that exclusions inconsistent with the omnibus statute are invalid only up to the statutory minimum coverage.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the appellants' argument that West Virginia Code § 33-12-32 governs the rental vehicle liability policy instead of West Virginia Code § 33-6-31(a) could be considered for the first time on appeal.
2. Whether the circuit court erred in declaring that the supplemental liability policy provided coverage to Wang-Yu Lin.
3. Whether the appellants' preserved arguments concerning permissive use and the policy exclusion defeated coverage.

Disposition

affirmed