Court Opinion

ID: 9740808
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:41:59.609752+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:20.375949
License: Public Domain

SCHULTZ, Justice
(dissenting).
I believe that the provision of Iowa Code section 516A.1 which provides protection to the insured to recover damages “because of bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death,” does not provide coverage for the insured’s loss of consortium claim. Iowa law recognizes the deprived spouse’s individual ownership of the loss of consortium claim. Madison v. Colby, 348 N.W.2d 202, 208-09 (Iowa 1984). Therefore, the deprived spouse must recover damages based on the merit of one’s own claim and not as a derivative of the physically injured spouse’s claim.
This statute only provides coverage for bodily injury, sickness or disease incurred by the insured. A loss of consortium claim does not fall within the purview of the statute. It is not a bodily injury to the insured. Sheffield v. American Indem. Co., 245 S.C. 389, 394, 140 S.E.2d 787, 790 (1965). “[I]f a spouse claims loss of consortium because of a bodily injury to the injured spouse, the claimant has not suffered independent bodily injury which would independently trigger uninsured motorist coverage.” No-Fault & Uninsured *348Motorist Automobile Insurance § 23.60[1][a] (1988) (citing Zoda v. Mutual of Enumclaw Ins. Co., 38 Wash.App. 98, 684 P.2d 91 (1984); Thompson v. Grange Ins. Ass’n, 34 Wash.App. 151, 660 P.2d 307 (1983)).
Additionally, I believe the legislature intended compensation only for injuries incurred by the persons covered under the policy, and not “strangers” to the policy such as the insured’s husband in this case. The uninsured motorist statute was enacted to protect the insured as if the tort-feasor had carried liability insurance. Rodman v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 208 N.W.2d 903, 909 (Iowa 1973). But all policies have their limits of coverage. I think the legislature enacted section 516A. 1 to compensate insureds for direct physical injuries they personally sustain, not for consequential damages they may incur tangentially via physical injury to another.
McGIVERIN, C.J., joins this dissent.