Court Opinion

ID: 9664076
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:02:09.379514+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:01.902214
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING
YETKA, Justice.
Appellant moved this court for a rehearing after the case was originally heard and decided. The petition having been granted, the case was reheard en banc on December 12, 1978. Upon reconsideration by the court, we are of the opinion that since there was no manifest error of fact, the case was fully argued, and no new issues of fact or of law have been presented, there has been no adequate reason presented to the court which justifies a reversal.
By way of further explanation for its earlier decision, the court is of the opinion that the questions of jurisdiction and conflict of laws must be separated. We are of the opinion that there is no real question of jurisdiction of the Minnesota court. Where plaintiff is a resident of the state and decedent’s estate is probated in Minnesota, defendant does business in this state and was properly served with process, the Minnesota court has jurisdiction of the case.
The only remaining question is whether Wisconsin or Minnesota law should be applied on the question of “stacking” insurance coverage. For all of the reasons stated in our original opinion and for the additional reason that contracts of insurance on motor vehicles are in a class by themselves and must be so treated, we believe Minnesota law was properly applied. When an insurance company doing business in a number of states writes a policy on an automo-. bile, the company knows the automobile is a movable item which will be driven from state to state. The company, therefore, accepts the risk that the insured may be subject to liability not only in the state where the policy is written, but also in states other than where the policy is written, and that in many instances those states will apply their own law to the situation. See Clay v. Sun Insurance Office, Ltd., 377 U.S. 179, 84 S.Ct. 1197, 12 L.Ed.2d 229 (1964). Such a contract is not like the usual commercial transaction where the law of the state where the contract is made should and does play a more important role. Application of Minnesota law in this case is, therefore, not so arbitrary and unreasonable as to violate due process.