Opinion ID: 1622118
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Holding in Higginbotham

Text: Finally, Higginbotham was not a plurality opinion on the issue of whether an express contract can control subrogation for benefits paid out for the same risk. A contract can control that facet. My complete concurring opinion in Higginbotham follows: I agree that Blue Cross should be subrogated under its insurance policy to benefits paid for the same risk that it covered which is medical care due to personal injury. Based on the record before us, it is impossible to tell what State Farm's liability benefit of $25,000 involved. Presumably it was liability coverage for bodily injury only. Blue Cross should only recover by subrogation to the extent that there has been double recovery by the insured for the same damages covered by Blue Cross. Had the appellant shown that part of the State Farm benefits were for damages other than for medical treatment, I would disallow subrogation for the non-medical portion of the benefits paid for public policy reasons. However, that was not done, perhaps because the parties understood that the liability coverage only went to bodily injury. For that reason I concur with the opinion. To summarize, the salient points of my concurring opinion were: (1) the insurance policy controlled the subrogation issue for benefits paid by a third-party carrier for the same risk; (2) Blue Cross should only recover under subrogation if the insured had recovered both from Blue Cross and the third-party carrier for the same risk (double-recovery); and (3) if benefits were paid in by the third-party carrier for a different risk, public policy should prevent Blue Cross from enforcing its subrogation rights. Subrogation after full recovery by the insured was not the issue in Higginbotham , as it is not the issue in the instant case. Thus, the term double recovery was used only in the sense of the insured receiving benefits from two carriers for the same risk. I respectfully dissent.