Court Opinion

ID: 9758117
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 23:12:19.61844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:47.171222
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
While I join with the reasoning of Mr. Justice McDermott’s dissenting opinion, I am writing separately to express my concern about the unforeseen consequences of the majority’s analysis.
The majority concludes that the rate classification plan of Hartford was properly disapproved because the rates rely upon and perpetuate sexual stereotypes similar to those which this Court has condemned. Upon review of the decisions cited by the majority, however, it is apparent that the issue presented by this appeal is critically different. In *600the earlier cases, we construed statutes that were written as gender specific to include both sexes. We rejected the employment of presumptions which were based upon social prejudices or meritless characteristics ascribed to a class. Clearly such presumptions are anathematic to our legal system. But this reasoning cannot resolve the issue of whether different insurance rates for men and women, which are based upon a statistical analysis of projected risks and losses, are unfairly discriminatory.
The Equal Rights Amendment has no application to the regulation of insurance rates. The language of the Amendment — “under the law” — has long been interpreted to require state action. Today the majority has reduced it to a generic term. I am also deeply disturbed by the manner in which the majority interprets “under the law” as circumscribing decisional law.
There is no dispute that it is unfairly discriminatory to subject individuals who are in the same position to disparate treatment based upon gender. If the insurance rates here had been determined without reference to the projected loss experience of male and female drivers, the rates would be unfairly discriminatory. It is not unfairly discriminatory, however, to treat individuals who are not in the same position differently. It is self-defeating to suggest that similar individuals should be treated as such not only where differences do not exist, but also that they should be treated as the same where differences undeniably do exist. We are presented here with differences which exist, not those which are presumed or manufactured to reinforce social prejudices. By treating a class without reference to the actual characteristics of the class, the majority in fact adopts the discriminatory analysis which it has previously abhorred.
The holding of the majority opinion demonstrates we have not yet learned the lesson that in our zeal to rectify perceived discrimination, we may create discrimination.
McDERMOTT, J., joins in this dissenting opinion.