Opinion ID: 1807424
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Collateral Sources

Text: In determining whether the trial court and the court of appeals panel properly deducted collateral source payments from the verdict pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 548.36, we must first determine which payments to appellants were collateral sources under Minn.Stat. § 548.36, subd. 1. Prior to trial, the Imlays received $703,326.79 in uninsured motorist benefits from Milwaukee, $192,370.20 from State Farm, and $50,000.00 from Tri-State. The trial court found all these payments constituted collateral sources under Minn.Stat. § 548.36, which the court of appeals did not disturb. Imlay, 444 N.W.2d at 600. Appellants do not deny their State Farm and Tri-State payments are collateral source benefits. The parties dispute whether uninsured motorist benefits are a collateral source. Several types of payments to a plaintiff are specifically listed as collateral sources, such as: health, accident and sickness, or automobile accident insurance or liability insurance that provides health benefits or income disability coverage. Minn.Stat. § 548.36, subd. 1(2). Automobile accident insurance clearly is covered by the statute and thus uninsured motorist benefits are a collateral source. Johnson v. Consolidated Freightways, 420 N.W.2d at 614 & n. 2. It is unclear, however, whether the rest of subdivision 1(2) limits automobile insurance or simply lists other types of collateral sources. Appellants contend the subpart is one type of collateral source and should be read as automobile accident insurance which `provides health benefits or income disability coverage.' Conversely, respondent city asserts this subpart names four distinct types of collateral sources, one of which is automobile accident insurance. Minn.Stat. § 548.36, subd. 1(2), is poorly written, ambiguous, and could conceivably be read as providing for one, two, three or four different types of collateral source benefits. Since there are grammatical and analytical problems with each of the possibilities, the legislature may wish to reexamine this subsection to clarify its intentions.