Court Opinion

ID: 9771866
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:56:59.74611+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:38.587259
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in this Opinion because it utilizes the standard interpretation applied to the limits of liability provision in an automobile liability policy when a spouse makes a loss of consortium claim. “[A]ll damages arising out of bodily injury sustained by one person” has been traditionally accepted as limiting the insurer’s dollar amount liability on the basis of the number of persons receiving bodily injury, rather than the number of separate claims deriving from each bodily injury. I do not perceive that this traditional interpretation conflicts with the reasonable expectations of the insured when he purchases the policy.
On the other hand, I believe it important to point out the fundamental conflict between this result and the result reached by our Court in Floyd v. Gray, Ky., 657 S.W.2d 936 (1983).
In Floyd v. Gray, we treated loss of consortium as “an independent cause of action,” not included within the two years’ statute of limitations for tort liability provided by the Motor Vehicles Reparations Act (MVRA) for injuries from motor vehicle accidents where the cause of action has not been abolished by the Act. This treatment disregards the derivative nature of the loss of consortium claim, viz., although a separate cause of action it derives from the bodily injury suffered in the motor vehicle accident by one’s spouse. My Dissenting Opinion in Floyd v. Gray stated:
“The basic problem with the majority opinion is failure to recognize the true nature of the action for damages for loss of consortium. Such an action is derivative in nature, arising out of and dependent upon the right of the injured spouse to recover. Mrs. Gray’s claim arises out of the same personal injury as does her husband’s claim. It is from the same cause [bodily injury to her husband].” 657 S.W.2d at 941.
The contradiction between the correct result reached in the present case and the incorrect result reached in Floyd v. Gray should be remedied by reversing Floyd v. Gray at the first opportunity. Floyd v. Gray should be reconciled with the present holding.