Court Opinion

ID: 9712418
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:53:31.173283+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:12.063574
License: Public Domain

O’KICKI, Judge,
concurring and dissenting:
I concur in the result of the majority in view of the particular facts of this case. I disagree with the legal reasoning. Counsel for the parties have stipulated to the arbitrators that the limit of the tortfeasor’s policy is at least equal to the minimum specified by Pennsylvania law ($15,-000), and have also stipulated that this minimum was paid to the appellant. (Supplemental R.R. 124b). In view of these two facts, the arbitrators may not find that the tortfeasor was uninsured or that the policy limit was less, notwithstanding the fact that the MCA policy on its face had a liability limit of “$5,000 per person and $10,000 per accident”. (Brief for appellant at 6.) Thus, the trial court was correct in vacating the arbitrator’s decision in this case.
The majority in its legal reasoning in this case relies upon the decisions of White v. Concord Mutual Insurance Company and Commercial Union Insurance Company, 296 Pa.Super. 171, 442 A.2d 713 (1982) and Davis v. Government Employees Ins. Co., 296 Pa.Super. 198, 442 A.2d 727 (1982); (both filed February 1982). I include by reference the dissenting opinion of Justice Shertz who correctly concludes and analyzes the applicability of National Grange Mut. Ins. Co. v. Kuhn, 428 Pa. 179, 236 A.2d 758 (1968).
The majority in this case looks at a half glass of milk and concludes that it is half full. I conclude that the glass is *307half empty. The majority then concludes that half or partly full equals full. The legislature provided that no insurance policy shall issue unless it provides coverage for uninsured motorists. The majority concludes that coverage means partial or incomplete coverage; I conclude that coverage that is not provided to the extent of the minimum statutory amounts prescribed by the state legislature is uninsurance to the extent that coverage is lacking. A motorist, under the Act of August 14, 1963, P.L. 909, as thereafter amended, 40 P.S. 2000(a), is entitled to minimum coverage for injuries or death resulting from motor vehicular accidents. Surely the legislature did not intend to protect, with minimum coverage, only those who are injured by motorists who are over-insured (those who have coverage in excess of the minimum limits) or those who are totally uninsured. I submit that the majority’s opinion judicially legislates these classes of motorists: (1) Those who are over-insured; (2) Those who are totally uninsured; and (3) Those who are inadequately insured.
The Uninsured Motorist’s Statute must be examined. The primary issue dealt with in the above section, it appears to us, is that of coverage first. That is, the section first refers to required coverage either contained within the policy of insurance or supplemental to that policy. Thus, the policy itself may not meet the limits of required insured amounts in that that required amount may be met by some type of coverage “supplemental thereto”; the term “uninsured” is used later in the section and is not defined by the Statute itself, making it a secondary reference point in interpretation. That interpretation, as a whole, must conform to the public policy and purpose of the act which is:
... to establish at reasonable cost to the purchaser of insurance, a statewide system of prompt and adequate basic loss benefits for motor vehicle accident victims and the survivors of deceased victims. 40 P.S. 1009.102(b) This basic policy is enunciated and elaborated upon in a
well-stated, clear “findings and purposes” section as follows:
Pa.Stat.Ann. tit. 40 § 1009.102 (Purdon Supp.1978-79).
*30812. Findings and purposes.
(a) Findings.—The General Assembly hereby finds and declares that:
(1) motor vehicles are the primary instrumentality for the transportation of individuals;
(2) the transportation of individuals by motor vehicle over Commonwealth highways and other highways significantly affects intrastate commerce, particularly in metropolitan areas;
(3) the maximum feasible restoration of all individuals injured and compensation of the economic losses of the survivors of all individuals killed in motor vehicle accidents on Commonwealth highways, in intrastate commerce, and in activity affecting intrastate commerce is essential to the humane and purposeful functioning of commerce;
(4) to avoid any undue burden on commerce during the intrastate transportation of individuals, it is necessary and proper to have a Statewide low-cost, comprehensive, and fair system of compensating and restoring motor vehicle accident victims and the survivors of deceased victims;
(5) exhaustive studies by the United States Department of Transportation, the Congress of the United States, and the General Assembly have determined that the present basic system of motor vehicle accident and insurance law, which makes compensation and restoration contingent upon:
(A) every victim first showing that someone else was at fault;
(B) every victim first showing that he was without fault; and
(C) the person at fault having sufficient liability insurance and other available financial resources to pay for all the loses,
is not such a low-cost, comprehensive, and fair system;
(6) careful studies, intensive hearings, and some State experiments have demonstrated that a basic system of motor vehicle accident and insurance law which:
*309(A) assures every victim payment of all his basic medical and rehabilitation costs, and recovery of a reasonable amount of work loss, replacement services and survivor’s loss; and
(B) eliminates the need to determine fault except when a victim is very seriously injured,
is such a low-cost comprehensive, and fair system;
(7) adoption of the system described in paragraph (6) in place of the system described in paragraph (5) would remove an undue burden on commerce;
(8) throughout the Commonwealth there should be uniformity as to the essential elements of the system of motor vehicle accident and insurance law to avoid confusion, complexity, uncertainty, and chaos which would be engendered by a multiplicity of noncomplementary systems, but the need for a basic system does not require that the Commonwealth itself directly administer, operate, or direct the administration or operation of such system; and
(9) a Statewide low-cost, comprehensive, and fair system of compensating and restoring motor vehicle accident victims can save and restore the lives of countless victims by providing and paying the cost of services so that every victim has the opportunity to:
(A) receive prompt and comprehensive professional treatment; and
(B) be rehabilitated to the point where he can return as a useful member of society and a self-respecting and self-supporting citizen.
(10) It is necessary to afford required coverages for motor vehicles to economically disadvantaged individuals at rates not so great as to deny such individuals access to insurance which it is necessary for them to have in order to earn income and to be or remain gainfully employed.
As the majority in White, supra, contends, the term “uninsured” is a term of art in the insurance business. The Insurance Commissioner has chosen to define this term according to whether the automobile was covered to the minimum insurance coverage of Pennsylvania Law—not as *310to whether the claimant recovered minimum damages. We cannot subscribe to that definition although White, supra, and the majority there does so. The history, purpose, and design of 40 P.S. 1009.101 et seq., illustrate that the two terms of “uninsured” and “underinsured” are equivalent, at least to the extent that the policy holder does not meet Pennsylvania’s $15,000 minimum.
In United Services Auto Ass’n Appeal, 227 Pa.Super. 508, 323 A.2d 737 (1974) it was said that a regulation may be deemed invalid if it is “contrary to constitutional, legislative, or administrative mandate, or against public policy or unconscionable”. A definition which the majority urges would most certainly be thus in that the purposes of limiting litigation, prompt settlement of claims and more predictable awards to claimants would be foreclosed to those who, properly or not, are underinsured.
The majority here maintains that the Commissioner has more expertise in this area and prefers that he define the term “uninsured” since the legislature has not. We do not agree. The majority would have us abdicate our judicial function by deferring our judicial function of interpretation to the Commissioner’s definition and urge this deference even in view of that definition being directly contrary to the policy and purpose of the Act.
The entire Act was challenged constitutionally in Singer v. Sheppard, 464 Pa. 387, 346 A.2d 897 (1975) and the challenge was quashed. There the Supreme Court, in a four to three decision with six opinions filed, held that the Act’s provisions did not violate the Pennsylvania Constitution, either by limiting the damages recoverable by auto accident victims or by denying certain victims recourse to the courts. Nor did the Act violate the equal protection clause of the federal constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment in establishing classifications among accident victims. The majority reasoned that the loss of certain rights to some victims was outweighed in the balance by the general benefit to society, stating “the legislature has substituted, in the case of relatively minor accidents, the prompt and sure recovery of *311economic loss for the delayed and uncertain awards of the courts.” (citations ommitted), 41 U. of Pitt. Law Review 27, 35 (1979).
The Act has been challenged on substantive due process grounds but has been easily upheld under the basic constitutional proposition that the Fourteenth Amendment requires only a showing that the legislation is reasonable and bears a rational relation to a permissible legislative objective. The rational relation justification is based on the assumption that the legislature has attempted to correct social evils associated with the old tort system, including the burden of processing all automobile accident litigation in the courts, the allegedly high cost of insurance would have been reduced, the lack of uniform availability of insurance coverage to many automobile owners and operators, the “inequities which have been visited upon claimants” because of uncertain allocating of benefits; and the heavy cost and delay in successfully pursuing a tort claim. Pinnick v. Cleary, 360 Mass. 1, 271 N.E.2d 599 (1971). It is asserted that the Act’s attempt at correcting these social evils in the old system is achieved by treating those affected equitably through an exchange of rights (i.e. speedy recovery on his claim in exchange for the right to sue in tort). A further challenge as to substantive due process involved the aspect of compulsory insurance. This consent is upheld by the reasoning that this compulsory insurance is a perfectly reasonable means to effectuate a fair allocation of costs for compensating accident victims among all motor vehicle owners and operators, thus satisfying the “rational relation” test. 48 Temple Law Quarterly 481, 483 (1975).
The power of the legislature to protect the health, safety, and welfare of citizens requires this conclusion.
Thus, although this court sitting en banc very recently rejected the proposition that “underinsured” equals “uninsured” in Davis v. Government Employees Ins. Co., 296 Pa.Super. 198, 442 A.2d 727 (1982); see also, White v. Concord Mutual Company and Commercial Union Insurance Company, 296 Pa.Super. 171, 442 A.2d 713 (1982), we cannot *312subscribe to this holding or the dicta in the majority opinion of the case at bar. As illustrated by the foregoing discussion, the legislature had a definite and worthy purpose in enunciating the Pennsylvania No-Fault Act and its policy. This purpose would be sorely strained if out-of-state drivers could venture onto our state’s highways with substantially lower coverage than that required by Pennsylvania, injure a Pennsylvania citizen, and not afford that citizen the same recovery as he would be entitled to if injured by a Pennsylvania tortfeasor. This directly undermines the state’s legislative power to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens.
In view of this, we do not agree that underinsured does not equal uninsured. The two terms, as to the amount the tortfeasor is underinsured, must be held as synonomous so that the policy of the No-Fault Act can be given its full force, weight, and effect.
Accordingly, we would hold that, while affirming the trial court as to the peculiar facts of the case before us, we equate “underinsured” with “uninsured”.