Court Opinion

ID: 9717717
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:09:08.310053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:54.818198
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
dissenting.
The facts giving rise to the underlying claim are that Cathy Boles, wife of Wilbur Boles, was injured in 1981, while a passenger in their car insured by Allstate Insurance Company. He was driving when the car struck a tree in the roadway. She sued him. Allstate sued for declaration of its duties under the policy. The policy expressly excluded coverage for bodily injury to persons such as Cathy Boles because she was married to and residing with the person against whom she was making claim.
Cathy Boles, appellant, contends that the household exclusion provision limiting general automobile liability coverage is unenforceable in her situation by public policy which is to be found in the framework of the law represented by this court's opinion in Brooks v. Robinson (1972), 259 Ind. 16, 284 N.E.2d 794, in which this court abrogated interspousal tort immunity; IC. § 27-1-13-7, a provision of the Indiana Insurance Law; and the Indiana Motor Vehicle Safety-Responsibility and Driver Improvement Act, .C. § 9-2-1-1, et seq. Ap-pellee Allstate Insurance Company takes the position that no such restrictive public policy is expressed or implied within these three sources of law, and therefore its household exclusion provision is valid and enforceable.
Guided by the rules governing judicial application and interpretations of legislative enactments, including (1) ascertainment and effectuation of legislative intent, (2) adherence to clear language, (8) prevention of irrational result or results contrary to legislative intent, and (4) judicial restraints, Dague v. Piper Aircraft Corp. (1981), Ind., 418 N.E.2d 207, I have examined the last-cited source of law, namely the Safety-Responsibility Act, and have concluded that its provisions and the legislative intent they reflect, are decisive in resolving the question presented. The act as a whole, according to the Attorney General, ".... is predicated upon a state policy to facilitate recovery for loss suffered because of the negligent operation of motor vehicles by others." A.G., 1944, Op. No. 8, p. 22. According to this view, loss recovery serves state interests and loss recovery will be more successful through the mechanisms created in the act. Appel-lee Allstate, with substantial support from cases of the Court of Appeals, including Green v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Ins. Co. (1976), 168 Ind. 434, 348 N.E.2d 828, holds to a narrower view, which is basic to its legal position. Such view is that the mechanisms in the statute do not "apply" until an accident occurs, and facilitate no recovery for losses resulting in such first accident, but only those resulting from second or subsequent accidents.
1.C. § 9-2-1-4, a provision of the act, which we now read and interpret for the first time, does not support the restricted view taken by Appellee Allstate and clearly by implication demonstrates a public policy antithetical to this household exclusion clause and its restriction upon public liability coverage. When this provision is read, keeping the "security" requirement in the forefront as a guiding beacon, as demonstrated in that part of the act set out in the last part of the majority opinion, it is beyond argument that a primary purpose of these provisions of the act is to facilitate loss recovery by auto accident victims of, for want of a better expression, first and immediate past accidents, as well as second or future accidents. This purpose is evident in the "security" requirements. And while the mechanisms in the act are not the equivalent of a compulsory insurance system in the strictest sense, they are nevertheless operative at all times upon owners and drivers, so as to exact obedience, even before any accident. That is, through the threat of the loss of driving privileges and auto registration, it enjoins drivers and owners to be in a constant state of prepar*1103edness to satisfy security requirements. Where, insurance is the means chosen by the driver or owner to reach the state of preparedness which is a primary legislative goal, a specific form of private contracting behavior is required, namely that which results in an insurance contract having liability coverage sufficient to indemnify “any person” injured in an auto accident, I.C. § 9-2-l-4(h) and an amount of such coverage up to the minimum set by I.C. § 9-2-1-15. From this restriction, a restriction of the personal autonomy of the contracting parties, including insurance companies such as Appellee is necessarily to be implied. To ignore that implied provision would fly in the face of a clear legislative intent and purpose. That we may not do. Dague, supra.
The legislative intent operating through the mechanism surrounding security requirements, with its goal to render loss recovery more successful, would have little vitality, if the insurance industry is free to sell basic and primary automobile policies in which the liability coverage is not general and commensurate with the scope of legal liability or up to minimum amounts. I would hold that the household exclusion clause is inoperative in the instance of the Boles claim, as repugnant to the public policy of the Safety-Responsibility Act. .