Court Opinion

ID: 9728062
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 13:56:59.212518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:45.488423
License: Public Domain

CLIFFORD, J.,
concurring.
To the Court’s eminently sound opinion, in which I join, I would add only the following brief comment.
At bottom this case amounts to a coverage dispute between two insurance carriers. Although I recognize that some questions of coverage may implicate portentous public policy considerations or call for a detailed analysis of contract-law principles, the issues projected by this case do not fall into either of those categories. Quite simply, two or three experienced liability-insurance people could, as easily as the court system, have decided what “upon” means in the context in which Nationwide used it (“The insurance industry is not, after all, in the position of Ethelred the Unready. One may reasonably assume that it has available perceptive and competent counsel * * * skilled in the craft of explicit expression.” 495 Corp. v. New Jersey Ins. Underwriting Ass’n, 86 N.J. 159, 170-71 (1981) (concurring opinion)); and they could likewise have determined the issue that we have left unanswered, namely, the primary-secondary ques*175tion. And I venture to guess that they could have decided those questions in very short order, without the expenditure of talent, resources, energy, and money represented by the proceedings engaged in here: arbitration, a Superior Court trial replete with depositions, an appeal to the Appellate Division with full briefing and oral argument that produced two opinions, and further briefing by way of petition for certification and responsive papers in this Court, followed by oral argument and ultimately these opinions.
Much of the expense attendant on this litigation will be borne by the insurance industry and eventually — -inevitably—by the insured public. I have to wonder whether it is all worth the cost, and have to wonder whether the people responsible for the decisions that can generate so much activity are really thinking about the problem. There must be a better way, and the people most directly concerned, namely, the insurance industry, would be well advised to bend their best efforts towards finding that way. Should they continue to ignore the problem, they run the risk that others, perhaps less qualified albeit well-intentioned, will enter the arena. That has been known to create even bigger problems.
For now I would do no more than repeat the. entreaty that found its way into Parks v. Colonial Penn Ins. Co., 98 N.J. 42 (1984):
Finally, we add the thought that the insurance industry would perform a significant public service — as well as help itself — were it to devise a procedure for resolution of coverage issues outside of the litigation area. History tells us that the American Insurance Association, the Alliance of American Insurers, and the National Association of Independent Insurers have all endorsed the principle of intercompany arbitration for the purpose of resolving certain coverage disputes. The ingenuity and resourcefulness of the industry should be brought to bear on the issue that underlies this case. [Id. at 50-51
Justice POLLOCK joins in this concurrence.
For affirmance in part, reversal in part and remandment —Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices HANDLER, O’HERN, GARIBALDI, STEIN, CLIFFORD and POLLOCK — 7. '
Opposed — None.