Court Opinion

ID: 9560207
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:45:20.782126+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:25.805589
License: Public Domain

SHEPARD, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I disagree with, and therefore dissent from, Part I of the majority opinion which addresses the “stacking” issue.
The majority correctly points out that at the time of the trial court decision in the instant case, our decision in Dullenty v. Rocky Mountain Fire & Cos. Co., 111 Idaho 98, 721 P.2d 198 (1986), had not been issued. The majority here states, “The rationale of our decision in Dullenty is equally applicable to the present case.” I disagree.
The facts of Dullenty differ materially from the facts of the instant case. Dullenty owned three motor vehicles, only one of which was insured by Rocky Mountain. The other two vehicles were insured by a different carrier, but nevertheless Dullenty asserted that he was covered under the Rocky Mountain policy against uninsured motorist provisions, although operating a vehicle not insured by Rocky Mountain. The Rocky Mountain policy specifically excluded such coverage while operating a vehicle owned by Dullenty but not insured by Rocky Mountain.
In contrast, the facts of the instant case indicate that the Hansens owned three vehicles, all of which were covered by policies issued by State Farm for which premiums were paid, and each of which policies contained uninsured motorist coverage.
In Dullenty, although the Court was urged to address the stacking issue in the abstract and beyond the particular facts of Dullenty, the Court declined to do so, stating:
In sum, we find nothing in our statutory scheme of automobile insurance which specifically requires an insurance carrier to extend coverage to an insured occupying an owned vehicle which is not insured by the carrier under a motor vehicle liability policy. We find no public policy implicit in our statutory scheme of automobile insurance which should require such coverage and thus invalidate the exclusionary clause in the instant case. We do not speak to and specifically reserve the question in a circumstance as is presented in Hammon where an insured under two or more motor vehicle liability policies, each issued by the same Carrier, and each of which insures a separate vehicle, and in each of which policies issued by the same carrier the insured has elected to and paid a premium for uninsured motorist coverage. Such a case, of course, would then involve the issue of stacking the coverages under each of the policies issued by the same carrier. Since we have held today that the exclusionary clause in the instant policy eliminates coverage while the insured is occupying another owned vehicle, uninsured by the same carrier, and have held that such exclusionary clause is not void as against public policy, we need not address the stacking issue in the instant case. (Emphasis added.)
Hence, in my view the Court in Dullenty declined to address, and specifically reserved for a future time, the stacking issue when multiple vehicles are owned but all insured by a single carrier, the fact pattern of the instant case. Since that issue was not addressed in Dullenty, it must be addressed today.
As above noted, the majority opinion asserts that the “rationale” of Dullenty is applicable here. The ultimate “rationale” of Dullenty was that an insurance carrier must be able to adequately assess the risks against which it insures, and charge premiums to compensate the carrier for the risks it assumes.
The Court in Dullenty stated:
*673We view the business of insurance as relatively simple in concept but complex in its detail. One purchases insurance as a hedge against risk. Thereby that risk is transferred partly or wholly to an insurance carrier. An insurance carrier will only remain in business if it is able to adequately assess the reality and the magnitude of the risk, and through the underwriting process charge premiums which will adequately compensate the carrier for the risks assumed. If a carrier fails to adequately assess or charge for the risks assumed, it will not be long in business____
If [a carrier] is required to insure against a risk of an undesignated but owned vehicle, or a different and more dangerous type of vehicle of which it has no knowledge, it is thereby required to insure against risks of which it is unaware, unable to underwrite, and unable to charge a premium therefor.
In the instant case State Farm insured all three vehicles owned by the Hansens and charged and accepted a premium for its coverage on all three vehicles. It cannot be said that State Farm was thereby required to insure against risks of which it was unaware, unable to underwrite, and unable to charge a premium therefor. In those respects the instant case is not governed by either the facts nor the rationale of Dullenty.
I would therefore affirm the district court on the stacking issue.
HUNTLEY, J., concurs.