Court Opinion

ID: 9581189
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:12:26.301154+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:45.966213
License: Public Domain

Fromme, J.,
dissenting and concurring in part. The Kansas automobile injury reparations act states:
“The purpose of this act is to provide a means of compensating persons promptly for accidental bodily injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of motor vehicles in lieu of liability for damages to the extent provided herein.” (Sec. 2.)
In the definition section of the act (Sec. 3 [m]) motor vehicle is defined as follows:
“ ‘Motor vehicle’ means every self-propelled vehicle of a kind required to be registered in this state, including any trailer, semitrailer or pole trailer designed for use with such vehicle.” (Sec. 3 [m],)
All parties agree that a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle is included in the general classification. It is equally agreed that the owner of a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle is required to provide motor vehicle liability insurance coverage under Section 4 (a) of the act. So the classification chosen by the legislature for compulsory insurance under the reparations act includes the owners of every self-propelled vehicle required to be registered in this state for use on the highways including without limitation Cadillacs, Volkswagens and motorcycles. The expressed purpose upon which the classification is based is to provide a means of compensating persons promptly for accidental bodily injury arising out of ownership, operation, maintenance or use of motor vehicles in lieu of liability for damages to the extent provided in the act.
The constitutional law rules relating to proper exercise of the police power for the public welfare are iterated in Pinkerton v. Schwiethale, 208 Kan. 596, Syl. ¶¶ 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 493 P. 2d 200. The classification provided in the present act appears reasonable when and if it includes owners of all motor vehicles using the highway. All such motor vehicles must be registered, are used on the public highways and their use causes damage and injuries. The prompt payment of benefits for accidental injury arising out of the use of a Cadillac, Volkswagen or motorcycle would seem to be equally in the public interest. I can accept the premise that this state has the power to legislate against what are found to be injuri*620ous practices in its internal and business affairs relating to the payment of claims for personal injuries by requiring compulsory liability insurance as a condition precedent to using the highways.
It is apparent if the state desires to assure prompt payment of claims this has to be done on the basis of first party insurance, such as the PIP benefits plan which requires the insured’s own company to pay for the injuries. After the prompt payment is effected either the injured party or the company can then seek reimbursement from the tortfeasor. This would appear to be a plan which generally meets the “reasonable relation” test as regards the purpose of the act.
However, tire classification to be employed in the exercise of the police power cannot be made arbitrarily. If there is invidious discrimination in setting up the classification this offends the “due process and equal protection” clause of the United States Constitution (Amendment 14, § 1). Any distinctions inherent in the particular classification must furnish a proper and reasonable basis for such distinctions. To have a proper and reasonable basis any person granted an exemption from the class must be so situated that there is a ground of difference for the exemption related to the objects of the legislation. (Pinkerton v. Schwiethale, supra.)
I can find no ground of difference for the favored exemption of the owners of motorcycles and motor-driven cycles relating to the objects of the legislation. After including them in the class required to purchase liability insurance under Section 4 (a) of the act the legislature placed such owners in a favored sub-classification so far as PIP benefits are concerned by including the special proviso in Sec. 7 (f) as follows:
“Provided, That the owner of a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle, as said terms are defined by K. S. A. 1973 Supp. 8-501, who is the named insured, shall have the right to reject in writing insurance coverage including such benefits for injury to a person which occurs while he is operating or is a passenger on such motorcycle or motor-driven cycle; and unless the named insured requests such coverage in writing, such coverage need not be provided in or supplemental to a renewal policy when the named insured has rejected the coverage in connection with a policy previously issued by the same insurer. The fact that the insured has rejected such coverage shall not cause such motorcycle or motor-driven cycle to be an uninsured motor vehicle; and”
Ry rejecting PIP benefit coverage the owner of a motorcycle is not classified as owning an uninsured motor vehicle. Although the exception in Section 16 (a) (1) is unclear it would appear by the construction that the owner of a motorcycle who has rejected PIP *621benefit coverage would not be covered under the assigned claims plan. In reading the threshold requirement of Section 17 no exception appears for owners of motorcycles so it follows they receive the protection of this threshold requirement and no recovery for damages in tort for pain and suffering, mental anguish, inconvenience and other non-pecuniary loss may be had unless the $500.00 medical threshold is exceeded. The net effect of this would place the owner of the motorcycle in a favored class. He may reject and not have to pay for PIP benefits premium yet he retains the full protection of the threshold requirement built into the act.
In 16 Am. Jur. 2d, Constitutional Law, § 500, p. 874, it is said:
“. . . The legislature cannot take what might be termed ‘a natural class of persons,’ split that class in two, and then arbitrarily designate the dissevered factions of the original unit as two classes and thereupon enact different rules for the government of each. Any law that is made applicable to one class of citizens only must be based on some substantial difference between the situation of that class and other individuals to which it does not apply, and must rest on some reason on which it can be defended. In other words, there must be such a difference between the situation and circumstances of all the members of the class and the situation and circumstances of all other members of the state in relation to the subjects of the discriminatory legislation as presents a just and natural reason for the difference made in their liabilities and burdens and in their rights and privileges. The reason for a classification must inhere in the subject matter, must be natural and substantial, and must be one suggested by such a difference in the situation and circumstances of the subjects placed in different classes as suggests the necessity or propriety of different legislation with respect to them. . . .”
There must be a proper relationship between differences to split up a classification and that relationship must bear upon the object for which the classification was made in the first place. This is explained in 16 Am. Jur. 2d, Constitutional law, § 501, p. 875, in these words:
“The standard by which the sufficiency of those differences which form a valid basis for classification may be measured has been repeatedly stated by the courts in many formulas which vary slightly in detail but contain substantially the same elements. The objects and purposes of a law present the touchstone for determining proper and improper classifications, and a classification to be valid must always rest on a difference which bears a fair, substantial, natural, reasonable, and just relation to the object for which it is proposed. . . .”
In State v. Haun, 61 Kan. 146, 59 Pac. 340, 47 L. R. A. 369, the miners’ “Scrip Law” was struck down as unconstitutional and void because of the unjust discrimination built into the class sought to be affected. The obvious intent of the act was to protect the *622laborer and not to benefit the corporation. The court could see no reason to protect employees working for a corporation with 10 or more on the payroll and not equally protect the employees of those corporations hiring less than 10 employees. The sub-class built into the classification was held to be unnatural, unreasonable and having no relationship to the obvious intent of the act.
In City of Derby v. Hiegert, 183 Kan. 68, 325 P. 2d 35, this court struck down an anti-peddler ordinance because of improper classifications. In the opinion it is pointed out:
“It is apparent that the ordinance involved, herein creates an unlawful classification, discriminatory in nature, which renders the ordinance invalid. Section 3 provides that the ordinance shall not apply to religious, charitable or community service organizations. There is no reasonable ground upon which this classification can be made. It bears no relation to the object and purposes of the ordinance. Its only effect is to permit one class to violate the provisions of the penal ordinance without penalty and to hold another class strictly responsible thereto. If the purpose of the ordinance is to protect the householder from uninvited intrusions against his peace and comfort and the possibility of the imposition of fraud, the exceptions in section 3 completely destroy such purpose. Certainly the knock on the door or the ring of the doorbell for the sale of goods, wares and merchandise by a solicitor for a religious, charitable or community service organization is as great a disturbance to the householders privacy and comfort as that by the commercial solicitor. Similarly, the danger of fraud, over-persistent selling methods and financial irresponsibility is as great in the activities of those which section 3 purports to exempt as in the activities of those covered by secton 1.” (p. 70.)
In State, ex rel., v. Consumers Warehouse Market, 185 Kan. 363, 343 P. 2d 234, this court considered the classifications used in the “Unfair Practices Act” and held the portion of the act which exempted “grain and feed dealers” from the scope and operation of the act constituted an unreasonable, arbitrary and fictitious classification having no reasonable and substantial relation to the purposes of the act and the subject matter thereof. In the opinion at pp. 369 and 370 it is stated:
“Concededly, a state has a broad discretion, in classification in the exercise of its power of regulation, and the Constitution of the United States does not require that things which are different in fact are to be treated in law as though they were the same, but discrimination in a state regulatory statute must be based on differences that are reasonably related to the purpose of the statute, and the constitutional guaranty of equal protection of the laws is interposed against discriminations that are entirely arbitrary. Distinctions cannot be justified if the discrimination has no reasonable relation to the differences. [Citations omitted.]”
In the present case since the purpose of the act is specifically *623stated in Section 2 we do not look beyond the language in the statute in search of the legislative purpose or extend the meaning of the statute beyond the plain terms of the act. (Hunter v. Haun, 210 Kan. 11, 499 P. 2d 1087.) As previously stated the legislative purpose is to provide a means of compensating persons promptly for accidental injury arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of motor vehicles. Considering such purpose, is there any less need for prompt payment of claims for personal injury arising out of the ownership and use of motorcycles as distinguished from other motor vehicles? I think not. There are facts and figures in the record before the court which indicate that based upon number of vehicles in operation on our highways the motorcycle accident rate is almost double that of other motor vehicles. The figures further indicate that there is a much greater incidence of fatalities and injury accidents for those traveling on motorcycles. Some of the figures on motorcycles such as those listed by Mr. Justice Schroeder in City of Wichita v. White, 205 Kan. 408, 410, 469 P. 2d 287, are thought provoking. It is a gross understatement when we say the statistics on injmy accidents involving motorcycles would seem to indicate as great a need for prompt payment of claims as do the statistics on other motor vehicle accidents.
What then justifies the favored treatment in the act of owners of motorcycles? Why should they be singled out from other motor vehicle owners and be given the right to reject PIP benefit coverage? This cannot be based upon less need for prompt payment of injury claims, the stated purpose of the act, for they have more injury accidents per registered vehicle than any other motor vehicle.
Although the parties to this action do not express any real reason for the preferred treatment and the record discloses no reason it might be inferred that insurance premiums for this first party coverage might be much higher in cost than for other motor vehicles. If that be the reason for their exemption from mandatory PIP coverage it has no reasonable and substantial relation to the purposes of the act or the subject matter thereof. It is no more reasonable to exempt the owners of motorcycles from mandatory PIP coverage because of premium cost than it would be to exempt the owners of Volkswagens and other small foreign cars from such coverage because the incidence of personal injury accidents are greater in those cars than in Cadillacs. Premium costs are presumably based upon loss ratio and loss ratio has *624nothing to do with the desire expressed by the legislature to provide a means of prompt payment of personal injury claims. Every motor vehicle owner chooses his own make and model of vehicle which he uses on the highways. Insurance premium costs will vary but they bear no relationship to the purpose for which the Kansas automobile injury reparations act was passed. You cannot exempt from such an act those owners residing in highly concentrated urban areas on the ground their premiums are higher than those of owners living in the rural areas in the western third of the state. Neither can you exempt the owners of motorcycles because of possible higher premium costs.
Section 7 (†) and Section 16 (a) (1) of the Kansas automobile injmy reparations act create a preferred sub-classification for owners of motorcycles and motor-driven cycles, violate the “due process and equal protection” clause of the United States Constitution (Amendment 14, § 1) in that said sub-classification amounts to invidious discrimination and are arbitrary and without a proper and reasonable basis considering the purpose of the act as expressly stated therein. Those provisions should be held null and void.
Section 21 of the act provides:
“If any provisions of this act, or the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of this act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby; and it shall be conclusively presumed that the legislature would have enacted the remainder of this act without such invalid or unconstitutional provision: Provided, That section 17 is expressly declared to be nonseverable.”
In view of the severability built into the act by the legislature I would strike down those provisions giving separate and preferred treatment to the owners of motorcycles and permit the balance of the act to stand in accordance with the views expressed in the majority opinion.
Fontron and Owsley, J. J., join in the foregoing dissent.