In Progressive Classic Ins. Co. v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 670 S.E.2d 497 (Ga. Ct. App. 2008), Clifford and Judy Alexander filed a wrongful death action alleging that their son, William, died from injuries sustained when he was run over by a vehicle driven by Sterling A. Jackson, also deceased. At the time of the incident, Jackson was insured under a Nationwide auto liability policy with $25,000 in coverage. William was the named insured on a separate Nationwide auto liability policy, which Progressive and Nationwide agreed provided the first layer of UM coverage for the incident.

At issue was the priority of three policies that provided potential UM coverage if the limits of the Jackson and William Alexander policies were exhausted: 1) a Nationwide auto liability policy listing Clifford Alexander as the sole named insured, with $300,000 in UM coverage; 2) a Nationwide personal liability umbrella policy issued to Clifford, with $2 million in UM coverage; and 3) a Progressive auto liability policy, with $500,000 in UM coverage, initially issued to William's sister, Catherine, but later amended to add Clifford as a named insured and Judy Alexander as an insured.

The trial court declined to prorate the policies, instead determining that the "more closely identified with" test applied. The court found that because all the Alexander family members "are ultimately covered under all of the policies, the only thing really differentiating them is the identity of the initial insured." After determining that the "primary relationship of a child with the family members is to his parents first, and then to his siblings," the trial court held that William was more closely identified with his father than with his sister, thus Clifford's UM policy was next in priority after William's own policy. But the court further concluded that because automobile policies "by definition, apply before umbrella policies," the umbrella policy came last in priority after the Progressive policy.