Court Opinion

ID: 9444853
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:14:34.485711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:02.580920
License: Public Domain

CHRISTENSON, District Judge.
I would affirm the trial court, including the award of interest on the entire $38,-400.99 judgment. The provisions of the policy seem clear that the company must pay all interest accruing after entry of judgment until the company has paid, tendered or deposited in court such part of such judgment as does not exceed the limit of the company’s liability thereon. To construe such provision as meaning not that the company would pay all interest, but that the company would pay interest on such part of the judgment as does not exceed the limit of the company’s liability, would be to draw no distinction between the two expressions which the contracting parties made separate and distinct. If the language is not, as I think it is, definite in requiring interest on the entire judgment, it then would appear so ambiguous as to require resolution against the insurer which drafted it. And there is reason and justice in favor of the interpretation contended for here. Ordinarily the insurer controls the litigation. Under an agreement to pay all interest no harm can be caused the insured while the company bargains for settlement of the judgment or takes an appeal in its own interest; whereas unless interest is payable on the entire judgment when the policy limits are exceeded, the insured may be seriously prejudiced. He may have no way to discharge his share of the judgment to stop the running of interest against him without interfering with the company’s management of the litigation and thus endangering whatever coverage he may have. On the other hand, the policy itself provides how the company can relieve itself of liability for payment of the excess interest — by paying or tendering or depositing into court the amount of the limit of its liability under the policy. Wilkerson v. Maryland Cas. Co., D.C.E.D.Va., 119 F.Supp. 383. The reasoning in the latter case seems more persuasive, and I therefore would not follow the Ninth Circuit decision cited, in the prevailing opinion.