Court Opinion

ID: 9731996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:04:05.093534+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:22.444705
License: Public Domain

McDERMOTT, Justice,
dissenting.
Through the use of cases from dissimilar areas of the law, the majority has succeeded in reading into Act 78 the common law right of rescission, a right which was determined earlier by this court in, Metropolitan Property and Liability Insurance Company v. Insurance Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Bonnie Beck et al., 517 Pa. 218, 535 A.2d 588 (1987), not to have survived the legislature’s passage of that Act. In Beck, id. our holding that rescission was not a remedy available to the subject Insurer was aided by the fact that the legislature passed Act 78 shortly after our Superior Court determined that the remedy was still viable. See Safeguard Mutual Insurance Co. v. Huggins, 241 Pa.Super. 382, 361 A.2d 711 (1976). Similarly, the Statutory Construction Act1 provides certain presumptions in ascertaining legislative intent. One of which is that the General Assembly intends to favor the public interest as against any private interest. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1922(5). That “public interest” will now be ignored as innocent victims are denied compensation when insurers elect to rescind contracts of insurance whenever one of their insureds, with a previously undisclosed incident laden driving record, is involved in an accident. It is this *12result as we stated in Beck which could be avoided, and thus the impact of Act 78’s cancellation requirements lessened, if insurers avoid the practice of providing on the spot coverage until a driving history is obtained.
Accordingly, I dissent.

. Act of Dec. 6, 1972, No. 290 § 3.