Court Opinion

ID: 9579039
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:50:57.145241+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:34:13.440535
License: Public Domain

Banke, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
I agree that motor vehicle insurers are not required by OCGA § 33-7-11 (a) (1) to provide uninsured motorist coverage for punitive damage claims. However, I do not agree with the majority’s conclusion, expressed in Division 3 (a) of its opinion, that “the purely technical application of the rules of statutory construction” necessarily favors this interpretation. The words “because of bodily injury” and “because of injury to or destruction of property of the insured” appear in subdivisions (A) and (B), respectively, of § 33-7-11 (a) (1), dealing with the limits of the required coverage. Thus, in the context in which they are used, they may be construed as a limitation merely on the amount of coverage required to be made available, which differs between these two categories. So construed, these phrases would provide a meaningful qualification of the requirement that coverage be provided for “all sums the insured shall be legally entitled to recover as damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle,” without necessarily excluding coverage for punitive damages.
Nevertheless, I do not believe the Legislature intended to require automobile insurers (and ultimately, as the majority points out, premium payers generally) to cover claims for punitive damages arising from wrongs committed by uninsured motorists. “It has been held that the Legislature’s purpose in enacting the Georgia uninsured motorist statute was ‘to protect the insured as to his actual loss.’ State Farm &c. Ins. Co. v. Murphy, 226 Ga. 710, 714 (177 SE2d 257) (1970).” Dacosta v. Allstate Ins. Co., 188 Ga. App. 10, 11 (372 SE2d 7) (1988). Viewed in the light of that purpose, the terminology, “all sums the insured shall be legally entitled to recover as damages,” may reasonably be interpreted as encompassing only actual damages. Indeed, our holdings in State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. v. Kuharik, 179 Ga. App. 568 (347 SE2d 281) (1986), and Coker v. State Farm Mut. Ins. Co., 193 Ga. App. 423 (388 SE2d 34) (1989), are implicitly based upon such a construction, for if the “all sums” terminology unambiguously encompassed punitive damages, there would be no basis for refusing to hold the insurer liable for such damages in cases where the identity or whereabouts of the uninsured tortfeasor is unknown. I therefore concur in the overruling of State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. v. Weathers, 193 Ga. App. 557 (388 SE2d 393) (1989), and in the affirmance of the trial court’s judgment in the present action.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Carley and Judge Pope join in this special concurrence.