Court Opinion

ID: 9481220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:11:41.663476+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:09.917959
License: Public Domain

*449WELLFORD, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
While suits for damages by Diane Cross, Corky Cross, and Matthew Moss were pending in Tennessee state court against the Johnsons, father and minor son (the parent having insurance policies with Omaha Property Insurance Co. (Omaha)) the latter sought a declaratory judgment in federal court, based on diversity jurisdiction, as to whether it owed a duty to defend and/or whether insurance coverage was available to either Johnson under a “personal auto policy” covering the parent, Comer Johnson. Omaha has been providing a defense under a reservation of rights in the state court to both Johnsons, including the minor son who took his father’s car without permission and was involved in an accident with the Crosses and Moss.
The federal declaratory judgment action was brought about four months after the state court action was filed. None of the parties involved in the accident, including the Johnsons, made any objection nor claimed want of jurisdiction to the federal declaratory action. Comer Johnson answered promptly without raising any jurisdiction question, but denied his son had “stolen” the automobile in question, but admitting that he had used it “without a reasonable belief that he was entitled to do so.” Johnson claimed coverage. The declaratory judgment proceeding does not appear to have delayed the state court proceeding as discovery was apparently just underway and has never been concluded. Plaintiffs’ counsel in the state court proceedings conceded at oral argument that he had never taken the deposition of young Johnson. The action was not taken, then, to delay or to bring about a continuance of the state action on its merits. No party instituted any action, separate from or a part of the original proceedings in state court, to test whether or not Omaha’s coverage under the contested policy applied under the circumstances of this case. No conflict between the decision rendered without objection by District Judge Edgar and a decision on coverage in state court now appears.
That latter factor clearly distinguishes this case from Grand Trunk Western Railroad Company v. Consolidated Rail Corporation, 746 F.2d 323 (6th Cir.1984), where we began our consideration with these words:
The sole issue on this appeal is whether we should exercise our discretion to review by declaratory judgment an order entered in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, adjudicating the merits of a claim for indemnification. Because we conclude the instant action is not an appropriate one for declaratory judgment, we vacate the District Court’s order and dismiss the case.
Id. at 324.
In Grand Trunk, the very issue sought to be adjudicated in federal court — indemnity as between two independent carriers— was pending before a state tribunal. We, therefore, in my view, properly found it error for the district court to interject by declaratory judgment the very legal issue to be decided in state court in Grand Trunk.
The act which authorizes federal courts to render declaratory judgments in appropriate cases “confers a discretion upon the courts rather than an absolute right upon the litigant.” Green v. Mansour, 474 U.S. 64, 72, 106 S.Ct. 423, 428, 88 L.Ed.2d 371 (1985) (quoting Public Service Comm’n v. Wycoff Co., 344 U.S. 237, 241, 73 S.Ct. 236, 239, 97 L.Ed. 291 (1952)).
We stated this rule in our circuit recently:
As the court pointed out in Allstate v. Green [825 F.2d 1061 (6th Cir.1987)], there is no per se rule against a district court’s entertaining a declaratory judgment action to determine an insured’s liability when a tort action is pending against its insured in a state court. Both the Supreme Court and this court have approved the use of declaratory judgment actions by insurers under such circumstances. See, e.g., Maryland Casualty Co. v. Pacific Coal & Oil Co., 312 U.S. 270, 61 S.Ct. 510, 85 L.Ed. 826 (1941); American States Ins. Co. v. D’Atri, 375 F.2d 761 (6th Cir.1967). Nevertheless, we have stated that “de*450claratory judgment actions seeking an advance opinion on indemnity issues are seldom helpful in resolving an ongoing action in another court.” Manley, Bennett, McDonald & Co., 791 F.2d at 463.
Allstate Insurance v. Mercier, 913 F.2d 273, 277-78 (6th Cir.1990).
From all that appears in this record, the parties had a full opportunity to develop evidence concerning the circumstances of young Johnson’s taking his father’s car without his knowledge or express consent. The decision in district court was not rendered until six months after the answer was filed. Mercier had not been decided at the time the district court rendered its decisions in question. It is not clear that the district court considered the factors discussed in Mercier, in Green, and in Grand Trunk. “When the record contains no indication that the district court considered these criteria and factors, this court has the option either to apply them on appeal or to remand to the district court for this exercise.” Mercier, 913 F.2d at 277. Neither the district court nor any of the parties concerned discussed these cases concerning the discretionary nature of accepting jurisdiction and rendering declaratory judgment on questions and issues that the state court might be called upon to decide.1
Under the circumstances, I would opt to remand to the district court to consider these issues, and to consider also possible certification of this difficult and uncharted area of legal interpretation to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
I, accordingly, respectfully dissent because I would remand, for the reasons indicated, rather than vacate the judgment with instructions to dismiss.

. I find American Home Assurance v. Evans, 791 F.2d 61 (6th Cir.1986), cited by the majority, to be clearly distinguishable. That action was instituted by the insurance carrier shortly before the state malpractice trial was to begin with a request for a stay. We noted in that case that the insurer’s action was “certainly part of a race for res judicata." Id. at 62. No such indication exists in the instant case. Manley, Bennett, McDonald v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins., 791 F.2d 460 (6th Cir.1986), is similarly inapplicable to these facts. Manley involved an effort to obtain a declaratory judgment in a Michigan federal district court on issues which were pending before another federal district court, involving the same parties and insurance companies, in New York. Compare State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Odom, 799 F.2d 247 (6th Cir.1986).