Court Opinion

ID: 9688208
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 17:39:01.890357+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:36.295990
License: Public Domain

HOOVER, EJ.
¶ 18. (concurring). I think the policy in our case, while not presenting an organizationally complex "maze," is "plainly contradictory" in exactly the same manner as the policy in Badger Mut. Ins. Co. v. Schmitz, 255 Wis. 2d 61, 647 N.W.2d 223. The question is, is this enough? Are the "false signals," Folkman v. Quamme, 2003 WI 116, ¶ 55, 264 Wis. 2d 617, 665 N.W.2d 857, the policy sends to Gohde sufficient to avoid the reducing clause, or in light of Folk-man, is more needed? Given the tenor of Folkman, I agree with the majority and our other post-Folkman cases that the inconsistencies partially driving the Schmitz decision, as explicated in Folkman, would now, in context, be seen by our supreme court as only benignly ambiguous. Thus, the supreme court would conclude, these inconsistencies would not engender objectively reasonable alternative meanings.
¶ 19. Folkman carefully compared the policy before it to that in Schmitz. Schmitz dealt with a lengthy and complex insurance policy. But, according to Folk-man, this was not the exclusive basis upon which the Schmitz court held that the policy's reducing clause was inoperative. Rather, Folkman further teaches that "a policy should avoid inconsistent provisions, provisions that build up false expectation, and provisions that produce reasonable alternative meanings." Folkman, *322264 Wis. 2d 617, ¶ 31. However, "inconsistencies in the context of a policy must be material to the issue in dispute and be of such a nature that a reasonable insured would find an alternative meaning." Id., ¶ 32.
¶ 20. In comparing the Folkman circumstances to those in Schmitz, the supreme court noted in the latter case that "a reasonable insured would likely believe that the purchase of, say, $200,00 in underinsured motorist coverage would lead to a $200,000 payment from the insurer depending on the insured's level of damages" because this was the limit stated in the declarations. Folkman, 264 Wis. 2d 617, ¶ 51. But, as the Folkman court noted, "because the policy contained a reducing clause, the insurer would never pay $200,000 to the insured ... ."Id. The Folkman court went on to observe that the effect of the reducing clause was only made clear in the reducing clause itself, with no explanation. Id., ¶ 53. This appears to be material because the Folkman court goes on to note that the UIM page contained a "typical limits of liability provision followed immediately after the schedule for underinsured motorist coverage. It stated, among other things, 'This is the most we will pay,' implying that it would pay the policy limits, although it never would." Id. Thus, the Folkman court observed, Schmitz concluded that the policy there at issue was "a maze that is organizationally complex and plainly contradictory." Id., ¶ 55.
¶ 21. As implied, I think at the core of Folkman is the supreme court's tacit retreat from some of the very considerations that led to the result in Schmitz, its painstaking references to that case notwithstanding. Thus, even though our case presents some features *323similar to the Schmitz case, I agree with the majority that the policy at issue is not ambiguous under Folk-man.