Court Opinion

ID: 9638978
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:00:29.294541+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:11.126069
License: Public Domain

ROBERTS, Justice,
dissenting.
I do not join the Court’s decision to overrule Baybutt Construction Corp. v. Commercial Union, 455 A.2d 914 (Me.1983). Although I agree that Baybutt was wrongly decided, that decision was carefully considered by the Court then sitting. See Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U.S. 160, 189-92, 96 S.Ct. 2586, 2603-05, 49 L.Ed.2d 415 (1975) (Stevens, J., concurring). Like Justice Stevens, I believe it’s better at times to adhere to a wrongly decided precedent. Moreover, the Court’s reliance on Adams v. Buffalo Forge, 443 A.2d 932 (Me.1982), is misplaced simply because people do not rely on principles of tort law in the same way that they are guided by contract principles. When considering the application of stare decisis, we should not look for evidence of reliance by the present litigants as *388the Court appears to do, slip op. at 9. Rather, we should consider whether the legal principle is one by which people generally conduct their affairs. Our adoption of the minority rule in Baybutt established the legal framework within which the standard Comprehensive General Liability policy has been interpreted in Maine since 1983. Peerless and other insurers could limit the impact of Baybutt by the simple expedient of attaching a rider to the standard policy. Because Peerless did not limit its policy prior to the damage sustained by the Argiros in 1984, I would affirm the judgment of the Superior Court.