Court Opinion

ID: 9633967
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 12:09:22.952829+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:10.803357
License: Public Domain

MAUGHAN, Justice
(Dissenting).
We should affirm the trial court. All references are to U.C.A.1953, as enacted L.1973.
The majority opinion is premised on the assumption that 31 — 41—6(l)(b)(ii) is ambiguous and that it is essential to apply the rules of construction to determine the underlying legislative intention in order to construe its provisions.
The language of the section is clear, precise, specific and unambiguous and it is the duty of this court to interpret as the legislature has expressed it.
*963(ii) in lieu of reimbursement for expenses which would have been reasonably incurred for services that, but for the injury, the injured person would have performed for his household and regardless of whether any of these expenses are actually incurred, an allowance of $12 per day ....
The clear meaning of this statute is that if the injured person would have performed household services, but for the injury, he is granted a flat allowance. The injured party in the instant case, washed dishes, took out garbage, vacuumed carpets, assisted his mother in carrying groceries, and washed the car. The statute provides an allowance for this labor, whether any expense was actually incurred. The flat rate avoids the necessity of proving the reasonable value of each service performed. The effect of the majority opinion is to engraft a valuation requirement in contradiction of the express terms of the statute, viz., whether the value of the services is sufficient to merit the employment of another to perform them. Through judicial legerdemain the majority opinion has amended the statute to conform with the Massachusetts Act, Mass.Genrl. Laws, Chapt. 90, Sec. 34A, Amended by St.1970, C. 670, Sec. 1, which provides:
and for payments in fact made to others, not members of the injured person’s household and reasonably incurred in obtaining from those others ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those that, had he not been injured, the injured person would have performed not for income but for the benefit of himself and/or members of his household . . [Emphasis supplied.]
Since Utah Act, Chapt. 41, Title 31, was basically patterned after the Massachusetts Act, the determination of the legislature to depart from the benefit provisions has great significance. The majority has it, to be entitled to the statutory benefits, the injured party must prove actual damages, viz.; he must prove the household services were of such a value to his family, that through interruption of the performance, the family is compelled to hire someone else, and make a cash outlay.
The phrase “regardless of whether any of these expenses are actually incurred” has been restricted to those instances where the injured person fortuitously locates a good Samaritan, who administers to his brother’s needs gratuitously. If a member of the household performs the injured party’s household duty, no benefit need be paid is the underlying philosophy of the majority, which, in fact, coincides with the Massachusetts statute. In that statute the services must be rendered by one who is not a member of the injured party’s household.
How would the majority apply its ruling to the following fact situation: The mother of five young children is injured. Her husband takes his annual vacation and performs the mother’s regular household duties. As father and husband, he is equally responsible for the care of his family. Should the mother recover the statutory allowance? What if the family has three healthy teen-age daughters, who suffer from a terminal case of laziness? The mother is injured, and the family employs someone to clean the house and cook the meals. Should the statutory allowance be denied because the daughters should have performed these household services?
The legislative design of the statute was to eliminate any valuation proof, e. g., were the household services of minimal or great value, and to set a flat rate. The sole issue under this statute is whether the party would have performed household services, but for the injury. If he would have, he is entitled to the statutory benefit.
The selective citations of the Act to buttress the peculiar construction of the majority merits attention.
31-41 — 2, provides:
The purpose of this act is to require the payment of certain prescribed benefits in respect to motor vehicle accidents through either insurance or other approved security but on the basis of no fault, preserving, however, the right of an injured person to pursue the customary tort claims where the most serious *964type of injuries occur. The intention of the legislature is hereby to possibly stabilize, if not effectuate certain savings in, the rising costs of automobile accident insurance and to effectuate a more efficient method of handling the greater bulk of the personal injury claims that arise out of automobile accidents, these being those not involving great amounts of damages. This act is not designed to have any effect on property damage claims.
The majority opinion states the public policy set forth is to provide the payment for some specified, primary damages without undue delay. I construe this section as declaring that in certain accidents where personal injury claims do not involve great amounts of damages, the injured party is deprived of his common law tort action. In substitution thereof certain prescribed benefits will be paid. The Act further states the intention of the legislature to stabilize, if not effectuate certain savings in, the cost of automobile insurance. The flat rate of $12 per day in Section 6(l)(b)(ii), in substitution of value, is a specific application of this policy.
The majority further cites Sec. 8 of the Act, wherein it is provided in regard to the various benefits set forth in Sec. 6, that they shall be paid on a monthly basis as expenses are incurred and that benefits are overdue if not paid within 35 days after the insurer receives “reasonable proof of the fact and amount of expenses incurred.”
Since these are general provisions in direct conflict with the specific provision of Sec. 6(l)(b)(ii) providing “regardless of whether any of these expenses are actually incurred," the majority’s interpretation is perplexing.
The majority expresses the view that to grant the benefit in the instant case would be a windfall and against public policy, by broadening coverage, to the detriment of the public through increased insurance costs. Basic policy is a legislative determination. The selection of a flat rate in place of an individual valuation is a matter specifically within the province of the legislature; it alone may determine the coverage, viz., the payment of certain prescribed benefits in lieu of the common law tort action.
The application of insurance law in this matter is inappropriate. This is not an insurance act, per se, but a scheme analogous to the Workmen’s Compensation Act, wherein the legislature has determined that common law actions and principles are inadequate to deal with the social problem. In response to social conditions, the legislature has created an entirely new basis to compensate injured persons; the Act should be so interpreted without reliance on the concepts of traditional tort law.
ELLETT, J., concurs in the views expressed in the dissenting opinion of MAU-GHAN, J.