Court Opinion

ID: 9562809
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:34:01.186691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:32.308861
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
HEEN, J.
I dissent.
I would reverse the judgment of the lower court. Notwithstanding the fact that we are the final arbiters of our own laws and are not bound by the federal court’s interpretation of our statutes, I agree with and would apply the reasoning of the ninth circuit court of appeals in Yamaguchi v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 706 F.2d 940 (9th Cir. 1983), and allow “stacking”. I find the terms of our no-fault statute to be highly ambiguous and as susceptible to the ninth circuit’s interpretation as to the majority’s here.
Moreover, I agree with Rana that the reasoning of those cases allowing stacking in uninsured motorist cases is equally applicable to no-fault cases and invalidates the clauses in his no-fault policy limiting Bishop’s liability. The thrust of those decisions is that provisions in uninsured motorists policies which, “if effectuated, would reduce the benefits directly payable by the injured-insured’s insurer to a sum below the statutory minimum” are invalid. Walton v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 55 Haw. 326, 329, 518 P.2d 1399, 1401 (1974). See also Allstate Insurance Co. v. Morgan, 59 Haw. 44, 575 P.2d 477 (1978); American Insurance Co. v. Takahashi, 59 Haw. 59, 575 P.2d 881 (1978).
In the instant case, Rana paid a sizeable separate premium to obtain no-fault coverage for each of his automobiles, which he was required by *16law to maintain. Bishop accepted his premiums and stood ready to provide no-fault coverage for each and every vehicle covered by the policy. Bishop’s position, now, supported by the majority of this court erases entirely the statutorily-required coverage for each of Rana’s non-occupied automobiles. Bishop has received the windfall ruled against in Walton, supra.
Secondly and most importantly, it has been held to be unconscionable to permit an insurer to collect a premium for coverage of a type that the insurer is obligated by statute to provide and then to permit the insurer to use language insurer itself devised to avoid liability. Simpson v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 318 F. Supp. 1152, 1156 (S.D. Ind. 1970); Blakeslee v. Farm Bureau Mutual Ins. Co., 388 Mich. 464, 474, 201 N.W.2d 786, 791 (1972). More pithily stated: “[insurer] charged a premium for the coverage; it cannot be permitted to vanish as the pea in the shell game”, Kraft v. Allstate Insurance Company, 6 Ariz. App. 276, 431 P.2d 917 (1967).
Id. at 333, 518 P.2d at 1403. In the case of no-fault insurance, not only is the insurer obligated by statute to provide it, but the automobile owner is required to maintain it. Where is the pea now?