State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Naomi Luebbers

1 Naomi Luebbers (Luebbers) presented a claim to State Farm Mutual Insurance Company (State Farm) on behalf of her minor son, Brian Salazar, Jr. for uninsured motorist benefits, alleging that Brian Jr. sustained loss of consortium damages as a result of the shooting death of his Father by or with the complicity of the operator of an uninsured motor vehicle. State Farm sought a declaratory judgment that its insurance policies did not provide coverage for Luebbers claims. In a motion for summary judgment, State Farm argued (1) Brian Jr. did not qualify as an insured under the policy because, as a four-week-old fetus at the time of the shooting, he was not a viable person; (2) under the policies, bodily injury triggering coverage must be to an insured, and Father was not an insured under its policies; and (3) Brian Jr. had no cause of action available to him since there is no New Mexico precedent allowing recovery for loss of parental consortium outside of a wrongful death act proceeding.