Court Opinion

ID: 9546762
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:35:07.347179+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:50.050259
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I dissent. Since Utah Code Ann. § 41-12-21.1 as it existed when plaintiff sustained her injuries did not define a “hit- and-run” motor vehicle, I think that the parties to the insurance contract were free to employ any reasonable definition in the policy. I agree with the trial judge, Judge Bunnell, that the definition in the policy which requires a striking is “most reasonable.”
The bases of the majority opinion’s holding that the legislature did not intend to require striking are flawed in several respects. First, it is not helpful or relevant to our analysis here to rely on the meaning of “hit-and-run” in baseball, military operations, or merchandising. We are dealing with a claimed automobile accident and an insurance policy. We should confine ourselves to that context. In passing, however, it should be observed that even in baseball, a batter does not get a “hit” unless he strikes the ball and reaches first base. We recently stated in Johnson v. Utah State Retirement Board, 91 Utah Adv.Rep. 8, 9 (Sept. 19, 1988), “A fundamental principle of statutory construction is that unambiguous language in the statute itself may not be interpreted so as to contradict its plain meaning.” The majority fails to observe this simple principle. When the legislature said “hit-and-run” I do not believe it can be interpreted to mean “miss-and-run” or “cause-and-run.” It is significant that in 1985 when the legislature wanted to cover accidents where there was no striking, it had no difficulty in expressing its intention by providing in sec*886tion 31A-22-305(5) (1986, Supp.1988) for insurance coverage where an accident was caused “without touching the covered person or the vehicle occupied by the covered person.” The words “hit-and-run,” which require an actual striking, were entirely deleted. It is readily apparent to me that the intent of the 1985 amendment was to expand coverage, not simply to provide for existing coverage in new language as the majority concludes. We should not presume that the legislature indulges in useless acts.
The majority falls into the same error that the court did in Pin Pin H. Su v. Kemper Insurance Co., 431 A.2d 416, 419 (R.I.1981), where it stated that “hit-and-run” is a “shorthand colloquial expression” and is not to be read literally. Such statements run counter to my experience as a lawyer, legislator, and judge that the legislature does not use colloquial terms in legislation, but searches for and uses definite words and phrases. We must assume that the legislature meant what it said when its language is not ambiguous and does not produce an unreasonable result.
In a well-reasoned opinion, the Supreme Court of Wisconsin in Hayne v. Progressive Northern Insurance Co., 115 Wis.2d 68, 339 N.W.2d 588 (1983), cited to the definition of “hit-and-run” in three leading dictionaries and observed that they were uniform in indicating that “hit-and-run” included two elements: a hit or a strike and a run or a fleeing. After noting that words in a statute are to be given their common and accepted meaning when not ambiguous, the court refused to hold that “hit-and-run” includes instances when there is no hitting. See Grace v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 197 Neb. 118, 246 N.W.2d 874 (1976), and Ferega v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 15 Ill.App.3d 246, 303 N.E.2d 459 (1973), aff'd, 58 Ill.2d 109, 317 N.E.2d 550 (1974), to the same effect. See also Black’s Law Dictionary 657 (5th ed. 1979), which defines a hit-and-run accident as, “Collision generally between motor vehicle and pedestrian or with another vehicle_” (Emphasis added.)
The majority quotes with approval from Surrey v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co., 384 Mass. 171, 177, 424 N.E.2d 234, 238 (1981): “The aim of the uninsured motorist statute is to minimize the catastrophic financial loss for victims of automobile accidents caused by the negligence of uninsured tortfeasors.” The majority then proceeds to conclude “that to establish physical contact as a condition precedent to recovery would be in derogation of the purpose and intent of the uninsured motorist statute and would create an arbitrary barrier to the assertion of a valid claim.” I submit that if requiring an actual striking is an “arbitrary barrier,” the place to remove the barrier is in the legislature and not in the courts. As previously noted, the legislature in 1985 removed this "barrier.” Further, it appears that the Massachusetts statute which was under construction in Surrey v. Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. mandated the inclusion of uninsured motorist coverage in every automobile insurance policy. Therefore, it is understandable that the court would not look with favor upon any limiting language in the policy itself. However, in Utah, uninsured motorist coverage is not mandated but is optional. Thus, the reasoning of the Massachusetts court is not compelling here. There is no evidence or legislative history before us that would lead me to believe that uninsured motorist coverage offered in Utah was intended to close every gap in the ways in which one might be injured while operating a motor vehicle. Furthermore, according words of a statute their ordinary and common meaning can never be properly termed "artificial” or “arbitrary.” I am in agreement with the Wisconsin court when in deciding Hayne v. Progressive Northern Insurance Co. it stated that it was the prerogative of the legislature, not that court, to make public policy changes in insurance coverage. See a similar expression of judicial restraint in Ferega v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Co.
Another serious flaw in the analysis of the majority opinion is in its attempt to draw upon section 41-6-29 for strength. That statute requires the driver of a ve-*887hide involved in an acddent resulting in injury or death to any person to immediately stop at the scene. The majority argues that because this statute does not require physical contact as a condition for determining when one must stop, “it would be inconsistent to read such a requirement into the hit-and-run clause of the uninsured motorist statute.” The error in this strained reasoning is that the two statutes deal with different subjects and are worded entirely different from each other. The uninsured motorist statute employs the language “hit-and-run,” whereas section 41-6-29 more broadly refers to “an accident” which obviously does not require a striking. The two statutes were enacted by the legislature at different times and in different sessions, and there is nothing before us that would justify giving the close connection between the two which the majority reaches for.
I would affirm the summary judgment.