Saunders

Defendant Al Cariss, an insurance agent for the Farmers Group of Companies, successfully demurred to plaintiff Glenn Duane Saunders’s fourth amended complaint seeking damages for fraud and emotional distress. Saunders appeals the judgment of dismissal contending his complaint alleges a valid cause of action. We agree and accordingly reverse with instructions.

Factual and Procedural Background

In 1986, Saunders bought a Farmers automobile policy through Cariss. The police provided for uninsured motorist coverage with $100,000 limits. That policy was in effect on January 8, 1988, when Saunders was seriously injured in an accident caused by an uninsured motorist.

When Saunders requested payment of his policy limits, Farmers responded by providing him with copies of two “Reduction Agreements” apparently consenting to the reduction of uninsured motorist coverage to either $15,000 or $25,000. The agreements purport to bear the signature in one case of Saunders and in the other of Saunders’s wife. Saunders denied that either he or his wife signed such a form or agreed in any other manner to a reduction of coverage. He alleges that without authorization Cariss signed…