Title: Doganiero v. Ins. Co. of Ohio

State: ohio

Issuer: Ohio Supreme Court

Document:

[Cite as Doganiero v. Ins. Co. of Ohio, 92 Ohio St.3d 216, 2001-Ohio-177.] 
 
 
DOGANIERO ET AL., APPELLANTS, v. INSURANCE COMPANY OF OHIO ET AL., 
APPELLEES. 
[Cite as Doganiero v. Ins. Co. of Ohio (2001), 92 Ohio St.3d 216.] 
Insurance — Motor vehicles — Mandatory offering of uninsured and 
underinsured motorist coverage — Amount available for payment for 
purpose of setoff — Court of appeals’ judgment reversed on authority of 
Littrell v. Wigglesworth and Clark v. Scarpelli and cause remanded to 
trial court for further proceedings. 
(No. 01-159 — Submitted May 16, 2001 — Decided July 5, 2001.) 
CERTIFIED by the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County, No. 77075. 
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The question certified for our consideration is “whether R.C. 
3937.18[A][2] precludes recovery of underinsured motorist insurance benefits 
where the insured’s underinsured motorist coverage limits are less than or equal to 
the tortfeasor’s liability coverage limits but the presence of other claimants 
prevents the insured from recovering any part of the tortfeasor’s coverage.” 
 
Pursuant to our decisions in Littrell v. Wigglesworth (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 
425, 746 N.E.2d 1077, and Clark v. Scarpelli (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 271, 744 
N.E.2d 719, the certified question is answered in the negative.  The judgment of 
the court of appeals is reversed on the authority of Littrell and Clark, and the 
cause is remanded to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with our 
decisions in Littrell and Clark. 
 
DOUGLAS, RESNICK, F.E. SWEENEY and PFEIFER, JJ., concur. 
 
MOYER, C.J., COOK and LUNDBERG STRATTON, JJ., dissent. 
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SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 
2 
 
 
COOK, J., dissenting.  I respectfully dissent based on the reasoning set 
forth in my dissenting opinion in Littrell v. Wigglesworth (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 
425, 746 N.Ed.2d 1077, and in my opinion concurring in part and dissenting in 
part in Clark v. Scarpelli (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 271, 744 N.E.2d 719. 
 
MOYER, C.J., and LUNDBERG STRATTON, J., concur in the foregoing 
dissenting opinion. 
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Schulman, Schulman & Meros and Howard A. Schulman, for appellants. 
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