Court Opinion

ID: 9754646
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:08:44.156911+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:56.147540
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I join that portion of the majority opinion reversing the award of survivor’s benefits. However, as I believe the Supreme Court’s decision in Kamperis v. Nationwide Insurance Company, 503 Pa. 536, 459 A.2d 426 (1983) may result in some confusion, I must respectfully dissent to that portion of the majority opinion which affirms the award of work loss benefits.
The majority in Kamperis held that § 1009.106(c)(1) of the No-fault Act (the Act) controls an action brought to recover post-mortem work loss benefits where no-fault benefits have not been paid for loss arising otherwise than from death, citing Sachritz v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co., 500 Pa. 167, 455 A.2d 101 (1982). I have no dispute with this conclusion. Section 106(c)(1) states, in pertinent part, that “an action ... may be commenced not later than two years after the victim suffers the loss ... or not later than four years from the accident, whichever is earlier.”
However, I do take issue with the Kamperis majority’s conclusion that the phrase “suffers the loss” should be interpreted, in a situation where the accident victim dies immediately as a result of the accident, as the date the victim “could next have expected to receive his regular pay for work he would ordinarily have performed in due course, but for the accident.” Kamperis, id.; 503 Pa. at 540, 469 A.2d at 1384. The Supreme Court went on to hold that the statute of limitations for post-mortem work loss claims runs for two years from that expected pay day, two years from the date the victim’s accrued work loss equals the $15,000 *36maximum, and in no event later than four years after the accident.
A problem with this determination arises in the situation where the victim is unemployed or retired. Clearly, a victim’s unemployment at the time of his death does not bar recovery of work loss benefits. 40 P.S. § 1009.205(c); Marryshow v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., 306 Pa.Super. 233, 452 A.2d 530 (1982). Nor does the victim’s retirement from employment bar recovery. Minier v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 309 Pa.Super. 53, 454 A.2d 1078 (1982). Therefore, if the victim was not receiving regular paychecks at the time of the accident and death, when does thé statute of limitations commence? Surely, the second part of the holding in Kamperis regarding commencement of the limitations period from the date the $15,000 maximum is accrued involves the same dilemma; that there is no practical way for a claimant to calculate when that maximum accrues.
I am aware of the Act’s definitions as found in § 1009.-205(d) for calculating probable annual income in these situations, but cannot agree that our legislature meant for claimants of work loss benefits on behalf of deceased victims to be required to make such calculations in order to determine the time by which suit must be commenced. To believe so would again expose the appellate courts of this Commonwealth to the complaint that we have added yet another unintended complication to the Act’s oft-litigated interpretation.
The Act defines “loss” as “accrued economic detriment resulting from injury arising out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle... ”. The Act further defines “loss of income” as “gross income actually lost by a victim or that would have been lost but for any income continuation plan...”, (emphasis added). On the other hand, § 1009.-106(a)(1) suggests that loss does not accrue when injury occurs, but as work loss is sustained.
I do not believe the legislature intended section 106(a)(1) to be interpreted as applicable to work loss recovery for *37deceased victims, but merely to indicate that one cannot seek no-fault benefits for potential, yet unsustained, losses. This is evident from the inclusion in the section of not only work loss, but also of allowable expense, replacement services and survivor’s loss. It is a generalized provision not capable of narrow interpretation, as performed in Kamperis. I agree wholeheartedly with President Judge Spaeth’s statement in Antanovich v. Allstate Insurance Co., 320 Pa.Super. 322, 341, 467 A.2d 345, 355 (1983):1
We can think of only one reason for the requirement that work loss benefits are to be paid monthly, namely, that it is not known when, or whether, the victim will be able to return to work. But when an accident results in death, this reasoning is inapplicable. It is known that the victim will not return to work. The amount of work loss benefits is therefore certain, and there is no need to extend the payments up to a period of fifteen months. (Emphasis in original)
While Antanovich did not involve a statute of limitations issue, but whether post-mortem work loss benefits were to be paid monthly or in a lump sum, I find the reasoning persuasive in the instant circumstances. Any other interpretation ignores the obvious; once the victim dies, he or she cannot engage in further employment. Therefore, I believe the limitations period on post-mortem work loss benefits should commence as of the victim’s date of death, where the victim dies immediately as a result of the accident.
A second problem arises in Kamperis regarding the interest provision found in § 1009.106(a)(2), providing 18% annual interest on claims submitted but not paid within thirty days. If post-mortem work loss only accrues as each anticipated paycheck comes due, must the claimant submit a claim at each of those dates, with interest due thirty days thereafter if not paid? Or could an obligor argue that because the claimant’s action may not accrue until the *38$15,000 maximum is reached (according to Kamperis) that interest is not owed until thirty days following submission of the anticipated paycheck which would make the total work loss $15,000? Again, what about the situation of the unemployed or retired victim? These questions now remain undecided as a result of Kamperis. I believe post-mortem work loss benefits should be paid in a lump sum, Antanovich, supra¡ and with 18% annual interest if not paid within thirty days of the obligor’s initial receipt of reasonable proof of loss.
Finally, Kamperis needlessly complicates the situation where the claimant institutes an action upon the obligor’s failure to pay work loss benefits prior to the accrual of the maximum work loss. In such a situation, the claimant certainly cannot allege, as due, those anticipated paychecks which had not accrued at the time, suit is instituted, necessitating multiple actions. Even if a trial court were to consider those paychecks which had accrued after commencement of the action but prior to its determination, it certainly could not take into consideration future anticipated paychecks. Therefore, there would exist little incentive for an obligor to pay periodic work loss benefits as they accrue, absent the provisions of the Act for awarding interest and attorneys fees, as the claimant technically would have to institute a cause of action on each separate accrued paycheck on which work loss benefits remain unpaid.
Since I believe that the analysis and conclusion in Antanovich is sound, requiring a lump-sum payment of postmortem work loss benefits, and since I am unable to reconcile that conclusion with the suggestion in Kamperis that— in death cases — “the Act clearly looks to a continuing series of losses,” Kamperis, id., 503 Pa. at 540, 469 A.2d at 1384, I am compelled to dissent from that portion of the majority opinion in this case which would hold that the within decedent’s estate suffered a loss each time a paycheck was not received, thereby extending the statute of limitations to a date not specified in the majority opinion.

. Petition for allowance of appeal filed 10/28/83, 269 W.D.Alloc.Doc. 1983.