Court Opinion

ID: 9445852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:39:11.852202+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:25.494867
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing
PER CURIAM.
St. Paul earnestly asserts in its Petition for Rehearing that we have held that there was no justiciable controversy between St. Paul and American and that the result necessarily would have been different after payment and subrogation. We did not so hold and the concluding sentence of the opinion, “That declaration is reversed and here rendered to hold the American policy not applicable,” discloses that we did not decide that, under these circumstances, there was no “actual controversy” within the meaning of the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.G.A. § 2201. Dotschay for Use and Benefit of Alfonso v. National Mutual Insurance Company of District of Columbia, 5 Cir., 246 F.2d 221; General Insurance Co. of America v. Western Fire & Casualty Co., 5 Cir., 241 F.2d 289; cf. United Pacific Insurance Company v. Ohio Casualty Company, 9 Cir., 172 F.2d 836; Maryland Casualty Company v. Hubbard, D.C.Cal., 22 F.Supp. 697; Oregon Auto Insurance Company v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, 9 Cir., 195 F.2d 958. Our discussion, incident to the quest for the intention of the parties (that is as between Osborne and American) was to point up the undeniable fact that there was no relationship between St. Paul and American and that St. Paul neither had nor could claim any rights, as such, under American's policy. This inheres in the nature of two completely separate contracts between two sets of unrelated parties. The desirable flexibility of declaratory relief cannot, of course, make a new contract or add parties to it.
The Petition for Rehearing is therefore denied.