Court Opinion

ID: 9727861
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:51:22.191397+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:43.683269
License: Public Domain

White, J.,
dissenting.
The majority has, without explanation, prohibited appellee from “stacking” the two underinsured motorist coverages which were purchased from Farm Bureau. I am compelled to dissent from the result rendered by the majority because I do not believe our case law, statutes, or the insurance policy language dictates such a result.
Nebraska’s Underinsured Motorist Insurance Coverage Act, Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 60-571 to 60-582 (Cum. Supp. 1986), is inapplicable to this case. In the absence of applicable statutory direction, this case is controlled by this court’s past decisions. I have no quarrel with the majority’s assertion that “the rationale of Kracl and Charley applies as well to the underinsured motorist coverage in the case before us.” However, neither Kracl v. Aetna Cas. & Surety Co., 220 Neb. 869, 374 N.W.2d 40 *716(1985), nor Charley v. Farmers Mut. Ins. Co., 219 Neb. 765, 366 N.W.2d 417 (1985), supports the conclusion that the underinsured motorist coverage provisions of these two separate policies may not be aggregated.
Kracl and Charley established the legal principles which today govern the “stacking” of multiple uninsured motorist coverages. It was held that whether multiple uninsured motorist coverages are to be aggregated depends upon the policy language. Further, an insurer may, by contract, limit its liability as long as it does not violate public policy. In short, these cases provided that an insurance company may, by contract, prohibit “stacking” by clear and unambiguous language within a policy. This case turns entirely on the language, as drafted by the insurer, used to limit liability within each of two policies issued by one insurer. A review of prior case law and Farm Bureau’s liability limiting policy language points to one result: Nothing in these policies prohibits appellee from “stacking” these underinsured motorist coverage limits.
The cases in which this court has denied “stacking” are clearly distinguishable from the case at bar. In Kracl, we held that two separate policies issued by two different insurers could not be stacked because nearly identical provisions in the policies limited the uninsured motorist coverage to the “covered” automobile within the particular policy.
In Charley, we affirmed the district court’s decision that denied plaintiff the ability to “stack” two uninsured motorist coverages on two autos insured under one policy. We affirmed, based on policy language which limited liability to no more than $ 15,000 per person in any one accident.
In Pettid v. Edwards, 195 Neb. 713, 716, 240 N.W.2d 344, 346 (1976) (which this court reaffirmed in Charley), we held that policy language which limited liability “to the limit stated in the declarations as applicable to each person, regardless of the number of automobiles to which the policy applied, ” clearly prevented stacking of uninsured motorist coverages. That case involved one policy which insured two vehicles.
This court in Pettid explicitly noted the difference in case law where the facts involved separate policies issued by the same insurer. We also cited other jurisdictions which clearly *717distinguished these types of cases. I am not unmindful that in Kracl we overruled two of our “same insurer, separate policies” cases; however, we did so only to the extent that they were contrary to the Kracl opinion. In other words, policy language still controls the question of stacking. In a case such as this, however, we must look at the two policies, with identical language, issued by one insurer.
Farm Bureau argues in its brief that the “Other Insurance” clauses in the policies are “antistacking” provisions. The majority correctly addresses the fallacy of this argument. I agree that in this case the “Other Insurance” provisions “are mutually repugnant and as against each other are impossible of accomplishment.” There is simply no clear language in these policies which prevents “stacking.” Farm Bureau could easily have added language such as that found in the policy reviewed in M.F.A. Mutual Ins. Co. v. Wallace, 245 Ark. 230, 231, 431 S.W.2d 742, 743 (1968). That policy contained an “Other Automobile Insurance in the Company” clause, which limited liability to the highest applicable limit under any one policy issued the insured by the company. See, also, Menke v. Country Mutual Insurance Co., 78 Ill. 2d 420, 401 N.E.2d 539 (1980).
Absent clear policy language to the contrary, there is no reason to prohibit the aggregation of the two underinsured motorist coverages. 1 would have allowed the coverage to be aggregated for a total limit of liability of $100,000 and, after reduction by the State Farm payment, awarded $75,000 to Polenz from Farm Bureau. This method seems preferable to the majority’s decision, which transforms a $25,000 award into a $50,000 award based largely on the fact that the Farm Bureau policies failed to address the allocation issue in cases where more than one policy is issued to the same insured. As we said in Waylett v. United Servs. Auto. Assn., 224 Neb. 741, 747, 401 N.W.2d 160, 164 (1987), “[T]he court is not free to redraft the contract” between an insured and the insurer. The majority opinion has given Farm Bureau the benefit of the State Farm deduction twice, plus the benefit of a limit of liability based on one policy. Neither the policy language nor case law dictates such an inequitable result.
Grant, J., joins in this dissent.