Court Opinion

ID: 9693250
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:32:58.01036+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:32.190142
License: Public Domain

*415CLIFFORD, J.,
dissenting.
In my disagreement with the majority, hermeneutics is not the weapon of choice. Logic is.
The liability of Ryder/P.I.E. Nationwide, Inc., (Ryder) is imposed as a result of its self-insured status rather than because of the violation of any duty owed to the injured worker, Roderman. In its capacity as a self-insurer, Ryder is picking up the liability of Harbor Bay Corporation, Inc. (Harbor Bay). Ryder does not contest the existence of its insuring obligation; it acknowledges that it must satisfy Harbor Bay’s tort liability. The question is: what is the dollar extent of that obligation?
I would affirm substantially for the reasons expressed by the Appellate Division, which concluded that “Ryder undertook to assume the risk of loss only for the mandatory minimum required of it by law, which is currently $15,000/$30,000, the same coverage it would have been required to purchase under the law if the Director [of the Division of Motor Vehicles] had not allowed it to become a self-insured.” At 406, 575 A.2d 418. It added that “there is no statutory or policy prohibition against a self-insured providing financial responsibility only to the extent required by law and also obtaining [as did Ryder here] additional insurance coverage in one form or another to cover only its own personnel.” Id. at 406, 575 A.2d at 418.
I agree with all of that. The trouble comes from my uneasy feeling that we are flying blind: we do not know how self-insurance is administered, and neither the record nor oral argument shed any light. For instance, what must be included in the application for self-insurance? What “financial information” must the applicant submit to the Director (now the Commissioner of Insurance) under N.J.S.A. 39:6-52? What considerations guide the Director’s exercise of discretion in determining whether to issue the certification of self-insurance? Are there limits on the extent to which one can become self-insured? If so, how is that limit determined? If there are no such limits, why not? Is there any difference in the liability of a self-in*416sured as a tortfeasor from its liability as an insurer? More specifically, if a a self-insured does not, unlike Ryder, obtain excess coverage (here, for liability of the corporate officers, directors, and employees above $500,000), are all the corporate assets at risk for insurance liability as well as tort liability?
Absent answers to those kinds of questions, I have little faith in the Court’s conclusion and am remitted to the logic of the Appellate Division’s approach.
I would affirm.
For reversal and remand — Chief Justice WILENTZ, and Justices HANDLER, POLLOCK, O’HERN, GARIBALDI and STEIN — 6.
For affirmance — Justice CLIFFORD — 1.