Court Opinion

ID: 9463924
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:20:25.873295+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:21.950065
License: Public Domain

ROBERT P. ANDERSON, Circuit Judge,
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent. The majority assumes that Safeco’s initial denial of coverage under the uninsured motorist provision of the Havanich policy in 1971 was wrong and that Safeco’s later change of position before the Insurance Department of the State of Connecticut is an admission of liability. I am persuaded, however, that Safeco properly denied coverage at the outset because DeCesare, the Massachusetts tort-feasor here in question, was not in fact an uninsured motorist at the time of the accident.
Mr. Justice MacDonald’s excellent and persuasive opinion in Simonette v. Great American Insurance Co., 165 Conn. 466, 338 A.2d 453 (1973), makes it abundantly clear that, had the Connecticut courts passed on the primary issue here of Safeco’s initial denial of coverage, the Havanich claim would not have been sustained. In Simonette, an automobile, operated by one Good, collided with a telephone pole, killing Good’s two passengers, Simonette, Jr., and Carroll. Good was insured in the minimum amount required under the Connecticut statute, i. e., $20,000 for each person and $20,000 for each accident. Good’s insurer paid $10,000 to Simonette’s estate and the remaining $10,000 to Carroll’s estate.
Damages for the wrongful death of Simonette, Jr., however, exceeded the sum of $10,000. The deceased’s father had an insurance policy on his own automobile with Great American Insurance under which his son was an insured and which provided for uninsured-motorist coverage in the amount of $20,000 for each person and $20,000 for each occurrence. The estate of Simonette, Jr., therefore, made a claim against Great American for payment of $10,000, the difference between the $20,000 uninsured motorist coverage on Simonette, Sr.’s policy and the $10,000 already paid by Good’s insurer. Great American Insurance refused to arbitrate. The plaintiff’s contention, as framed by the Connecticut Supreme Court, was that the proper interpretation of Connecticut statutes and regulations dealing with “uninsured motorist” coverage,
“entitled an injured party who has an uninsured motorist policy and receives a sum less than the amount specified under that policy from an insured tort-feasor to the difference between what he received from the tort-feasor and the amount of his own uninsured motorist policy provision.” 165 Conn, at 470, 338 A.2d at 454.
In rejecting this argument, the Connecticut Supreme Court wrote:
“ ‘Uninsured’ clearly is not the same as ‘underinsured’ and ‘[a] court will not torture words to import ambiguity where the ordinary meaning leaves no room for ambiguity, and words do not become ambiguous simply because lawyers or laymen contend for different meanings.’ Marcolini v. Allstate Ins. Co., 160 Conn. 280, 284, 278 A.2d 796, 798 [1971].” 165 Conn, at 472, 338 A.2d at 455.
Accord, Weingarten v. Allstate Insurance Co., 169 Conn. 502, 507-10, 363 A.2d 1055 (1975) (an unidentified, hit-and-run driver is not an “uninsured motorist”).
Simonette makes plain that Connecticut will not equate “uninsured” with “underinsured” and that the Havanichs, therefore, were not entitled to uninsured motorist benefits on their own policy merely because the tort-feasor in question was only insured for the $5,000 Massachusetts minimum requirement.
*953At oral argument on this appeal, Safeco took the position that Simonette would apply to the present case only if the tort-feasor in question had been insured for Connecticut's minimum coverage of $20,000 rather than the $5,000 Massachusetts minimum coverage? This overly restrictive view of Simonette’s applicability ignores the Connecticut Supreme Court’s admonition that the word “uninsured” be given its common meaning, see Ct. G.S.A. § 1-1, and that it is for the State legislature and not the courts to provide a remedy for individuals who find themselves in the Havanichs’ position. 165 Conn, at 471-72, 338 A.2d at 455-56.
Moreover, the majority in essence ignores the affect on the present action of the unauthorized settlement and release of the Massachusetts suit brought by the Havanichs against DeCesare. Litigation of that action would have established the amount of damages actually suffered by the plaintiff through this accident. The plaintiff has asked in her present complaint, filed in the United States District Court in Connecticut, for a judgment of $15,000, but no proof of damages was offered at trial and the directed verdict for defendant Safeco should be affirmed. In any event the most that plaintiff is entitled to, even under the majority ruling, is, therefore, an order directing Safeco to proceed with arbitration as required by the insurance policy in question.