Court Opinion

ID: 9714117
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:31:15.670829+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:23.614932
License: Public Domain

Joslin, J.,
dissenting. I did not participate in Aldcrojt *711v. Fidelity and Casualty Co. of New York, 106 R. I. 311, 259 A.2d 408, and therefore, read it from the vantage of hindsight. I would restrict it to its facts.
In my judgment a tort-feasor whose insurance carrier becomes insolvent moments after he has injured a third person is no less an uninsured motorist than is a tort-feasor who at the moment when the accident occurred was without any liability insurance at all. In either event the injured person is denied the protection which would have been his if the tort-feasor at the time of the accident had liability insurance which was “applicable,” that is, as defined in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, insurance “capable of being applied” to satisfy lawful claims. It was that kind of protection which was contemplated by the parties. They were interested in protecting, and being protected, against damages inflicted by a financially irresponsible party, and it was that kind of protection which the legislature had in mind when, in G. L. 1956, §27-7-2.1, it required, subject to the right of the insured to reject the coverage, that all automobile liability insurance contracts issued in this state should contain an uninsured motorist’s endorsement.
While the authorities are divided, I believe those upon which I rely take a more realistic approach. Whitney v. American Fidelity Co., 350 Mass. 542, 215 N.E.2d 767; Hodges v. Canal Ins. Co., (Miss.), 223 So. 2d 630; Vanguard Ins. Co. v. Polchlopek, 18 N.Y.2d 376, 222 N.E.2d 383; Pattani v. Keystone Ins. Co., 426 Pa. 332, 231 A.2d 402; Tsapralis v. Public Employees Mutual Casualty Co., 77 Wash.2d 581, 464 P.2d 421. Contra, Apotas v. Allstate Ins. Co., Del., 246 A.2d 923; Topolewski v. Detroit Automobile Inter-Ins. Exch., 6 Mich. App. 286, 148 N.W.2d 906; Swaringin v. Allstate Ins. Co., (Mo.), 399 S.W.2d 131.