Insurance. Denial of UIM claim affirmed because policy delivered out-of-state. Phrase “with respect to” is a conjunction.

 McGoff v. Acadia Insurance Co., 2011 VT 102 (mem.)

Plaintiffs appeal an order  granting defendant Acadia  summary judgment with respect to plaintiffs’ underinsured motorists (UIM) claim arising from an automobile accident in which Thomas McGoff was injured. Plaintiffs argue that the court erred in ruling that Vermont’s UIM requirements do not apply to the instant policy on grounds that the policy was not delivered or issued for delivery in Vermont. We affirm.

In relevant part, § 941(a) provides that no motor vehicle policy “may be delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state unless” UM/UIM coverage is provided for the protection of the insureds. The policy was issued and delivered to Sandri, a Massachusetts company with its principal place of business in Massachusetts, by a Massachusetts agent, for vehicles—including the Plymouth supplied to McGoff—registered in Massachusetts. In short, given § 941(a)’s plain language, the statute does not apply to the subject policy.

Plaintiffs appear to argue that because the Plymouth was garaged in Vermont rather than in Massachusetts, as indicated in the Acadia policy, and thus should have been registered in Vermont rather than Massachusetts, § 941’s UIM requirements should apply, including § 941(c), which requires that UM/UIM coverage in a policy be provided in the same amount as the liability coverage “unless the policyholder otherwise directs.” This position is contrary to the plain language of § 941(a) as well as the nearly unanimous relevant case law, and therefore we decline to adopt it under the present circumstances.

The salient language in § 941(a) limits application of the statute to policies “delivered or issued for delivery in this state with respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this state.” (Emphasis added.) The two key phrases connected by the term “with respect to” are conjunctive rather than disjunctive, thereby requiring both elements to be satisfied for the statute to apply. Whether the issue is framed as one of statutory construction or choice-of-law, the courts construing statutes similar to § 941(a) are nearly unanimous in concluding that insurance policies such as the instant Acadia policy are not subject to that state’s statutory UM/UIM coverage requirements unless the policy was delivered or issued for delivery in that state, even if the subject vehicle was regularly garaged in that state.

Zoning. Plain meaning. Use of the "nearest available dictionary." The virgule (“/”) is disjunctive. . A self storage facility is not permitted as “retail sales/rentals” because it is not “retail.”

 In re Tyler Self-Storage Unit Permits,  2011 VT 66 (Burgess, J.)

A group of neighbors in the Town of Dorset appeal from an Environmental Court decision granting Bradford Tyler’s application for a zoning permit for the construction of a self-storage facility in the Dorset Village Commercial District.  Appellants contend that the court erred in determining the rental storage units to be an authorized land use within the applicable Dorset zoning district.  The Environmental Court granted applicant’s proposed use as a permissible  “retail rental.”  Although the court appropriately concluded that the phrase “retail sales/rentals” translates to “retail sales or retail rentals,” we hold that the plain language of the Bylaws' definitiion of "retail" precludes applicant’s self-storage facility.

The first issue in the  this case is whether the word "retail" in the phrase “retail sales/rentals” limits "rentals." The most basic tenet of textual interpretation is that words otherwise undefined are ordinarily defined by reference to the nearest available dictionary.  2A N. Singer, Sutherland Statutory Construction § 47:7, at 303-04 (7th ed. 2007).  The reliance of the regulations on “any readily available dictionary” reflects common sense and does not lead to unfettered discretion on the part of zoning administratorss -- absent an actual issue of competing and confusing definitions The virgule (“/”) is used “to separate alternatives,” American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 1922 (4th ed. 2006), and is reasonably understood to be disjunctive, another expression of the word “or.”

“Retail,” a specific description, is followed by “sales” and “rentals,” words of more general import.  Thus, the phrase “retail sales/rentals” translates to “retail sales or retail rentals."

The trial court mistakenly concluded that so long as a facility rents to individuals, rather than to industrial customers or on a wholesale basis, the facility is permissible. The term “retail” is defined in the ordinance to mean “a shop or store for the sale of goods, commodities, products or services directly to the consumer, as opposed to wholesale.”  The Bylaws’ drafters intended “retail sales/rentals” to include only small-scale commercial establishments trading in services or in goods, for sale and for rent, as opposed to renting storage space as applicant proposes.  A self-storage facility is not a shop or store, nor does it offer goods or services.

Reversed.