Court Opinion

ID: 9771321
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:39:14.577021+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:28.576848
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, concurring. I agree this case must be affirmed because we cannot tell if the money received by the injured party from State Farm Insurance, carrier for the third-party tortfeasor, represents a payment for medical expenses. From the record we know only that State Farm paid $250,000 in settlement. This figure could be the limits of the policy, for permanent disability, disfigurement, or for any other element of damages, and is not necessarily compensation for medical expenses. We cannot tell whether the party seeking subrogation has paid the obligation which would be the subject of the subrogation claim. I disagree with the majority opinion’s conclusion that satisfaction of a personal injury claim is not the sort of payment for which subrogation may be sought. In Trinity Universal Ins. Co. v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., 246 Ark. 1021, 441 S.W.2d 95 (1969), we allowed an action by an insurance company against another insurance company for contribution in a wrongful death case arising from an automobile accident. In that case the only basis of the plaintiff company’s claim was equitable subrogation. An insurer which pays a claim against an insured for damages caused by the default or wrongdoing of a third party is entitled to be subrogated to the insured’s rights against such third party, irrespective of the nature of the contract. And it has been held that this result obtains even though the policy contains no stipulations to that effect. But it has been stated that though subrogation clauses within policies are generally enforceable, the common-law concepts of subrogation cannot be employed to create rights of subrogation where a policy provides otherwise. An insurer claiming subrogation rights was entitled to recover from the third person only those claims which it had satisfied. [Footnotes omitted]. The distinction drawn in the majority opinion between the kinds of injuries compensated in personal injury cases and the kind of injuries compensated in property damage or conveyance cases escapes me in the context of subrogation. Holt, C.J., and Dudley, J., join in this concurrence.