Court Opinion

ID: 9641859
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:41:44.502659+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:40.373864
License: Public Domain

HESTER, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the estate of the deceased victim is entitled to recover work loss benefits under the No-Fault Act. I dissent for the reasons set forth in my Dissenting Opinion in Freeze v. Donegal Mutual Insurance Co., 301 *260Pa.Super.Ct. 344, 447 A.2d 999 (1982). In Freeze, this court held that the right of an estate of a deceased victim to recover no fault benefits was authorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s opinion in Allstate Insurance Company v. Heffner; Pontius, Administrator of the Estate of Janet A. Pontius, Deceased, 491 Pa. 447, 421 A.2d 629 (1980). This is not so. In the Heffner portion of that appeal, the Supreme Court affirmed this court’s opinion in Heffner v. Allstate, 265 Pa.Super. 181, 401 A.2d 1160 (1979) wherein we held that the surviving spouse was entitled to recover Work Loss Benefits under No-Fault “as the surviv- or of a deceased victim”, 188 of 265 Pa.Superior, 1163 of 401 A.2d. Our holding, I repeat, authorized recovery of Work Loss Benefits by the widow as a “Survivor”, not as Administratrix of the Estate of the deceased victim.
In the very brief portion of its Opinion dealing with the fact situation in the Pontius appeal, the Supreme Court merely recites a history of the case, pages 448-449 of 491 Pa., page 630 of 421 A.2d, and then “affirms the Orders of the Superior Court,” 460 of 491 Pa. 636 of 421 A.2d. The only order of this court pertaining to the Pontius case was entered by Judge Wieand, dated July 3, 1979 which reversed and remanded to the Common Pleas Court of Dauphin County. The Supreme Court’s opinion does not hold that the estate of a deceased victim is entitled to Work Loss Benefits. The No-Fault Act makes no such provision.
By awarding Work Loss Benefits to the Estate of a deceased victim, the majority in Freeze, supra, created a situation that makes it possible for Work Loss Benefits to be paid to individuals and/or institutions far removed beyond the legislative definition of “survivors”. It is very possible that a deceased victim, in the provisions of a Will, could devise all or a portion of his or her estate to the American Nazi Party, the Ku Klux Klan, the P.L.O. or a similar organization. Are we to believe that this was the intent of the Legislature when they created the benefits set forth in the No-Fault Act? The answer is obvious.
*261I therefore dissent from that section of the majority opinion which would award Work Loss Benefits to the Smiley Estate. I would authorize the award of Work Loss Benefits to the father, mother and brother of the deceased victim as survivors as defined in the No-Fault Act.
I concur in the remainder of the majority opinion.