Court Opinion

ID: 9533706
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:34:04.786376+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:29:07.911928
License: Public Domain

Mr. JUSTICE BARRY, dissenting: The failure of the insurance company to define “graduate registered nurse,” either expressly or by reference to a particular statute, renders that term unambiguous. The defendant has failed to limit the coverage of the policy to registered nurses as defined by section 4 and 8 of the Illinois Nursing Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 91, pars. 35.35 and 35.39). The term, as used in this policy, is not even capitalized. Capitalization would seem to indicate a more specific application or meaning. The failure of the company to so capitalize leads the reader to believe the phrase has a more general reference. In a similar case, the phrase “graduate, registered nurse” was construed to include practical nurses who were graduates of a school for training practical nurses, and the phrase was not limited to a professional nurse having the right to use the title “Registered Nurse” and the abbreviation “R.N.” (Kaplan v. New York Life Insurance Co. (1959), 192 N.Y.S.2d 378, 19 Misc. 2d 987.) I believe this is the appropriate result in this case, especially considering the relative unavailability of registered professional nurses and the fact that not all patients require a registered professional nurse to care for them, a licensed practical nurse being sufficient. Furthermore, the meaning of the terms composing the phrase “graduate registered nurse” lead to the conclusion I propose. A graduate nurse is “a person who has completed the regular course of study and practical hospital training in nurses’ training school.” (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 985 (1971).) Under Illinois law, both a licensed practical nurse and a registered professional nurse are required to complete an educational program in an approved school of nursing, although the educational requirements are different. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 91, pars. 35.39 and 35.40.) Both are certified, and that means registered because the last paragraph of section 9 (par. 35.40), setting out the qualifications of licensed practical nurses, states that “the Department may take into consideration any felony conviction of the applicant, but such a conviction shall not operate as a bar to registration.” In addition, section 13 (par. 35.44) indicates that the nurse’s certificate is a “certificate of registration.” Therefore, I believe the phrase “graduate registered nurse” used in this policy does not limit the coverage of the policy to only registered professional nurses as defined by sections 4 and 8 of the Illinois Nursing Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1975, ch. 91, pars. 35.35 and 35.39). On the other hand, given the unavailability of registered professional nurses and the fact that not all patients needing nursing care require the expertise of a registered professional nurse, such a limitation on the coverage of the policy may be unconscionable.