Court Opinion

ID: 9654483
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:22:46.353733+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:09.791069
License: Public Domain

Donald L. Corbin, Justice, dissenting. Appellant Cheryl Youngman asks this court to reconsider its longstanding common-law rule against the stacking of multiple uninsured-motorist insurance policies. Appellant concedes that this court’s previous holdings on this issue, beginning with M.F.A. Mut. Ins. Co., Inc. v. Wallace, 245 Ark. 230, 431 S.W.2d 742 (1968), are “stacked” against her, yet she asks us to revisit that rule. The majority refuses to do so, and for that reason, I respectfully dissent. Appellant contends that this court should revisit this issue, given that the overwhelming majority of states now embrace the notion that an injured insured should be entitled to collect on multiple uninsured-motorist policies in order to fully compensate or indemnify the insured. See Alan I. Widiss, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Insurance § 13.6 (1990). She argues that such reasoning is applicable here, as the total damages awarded by the trial court were over $69,000 and her compensation from the uninsured coverage was a mere $25,000. She asserts that she is not looking for a windfall or looking to double her recovery; rather, she asks only to be compensated as fully as possible under both policies, as both policies had been paid for and were current. This court should reconsider its position, first announced in Wallace, 245 Ark. 230, 431 S.W.2d 742, that “anti-stacking” or “other-insurance” clauses pertaining to uninsured-motorist coverage are not repugnant to this State’s Uninsured Motorist Act or public policy. I, for one, believe that it is time to shed this common-law rule in favor of one that allows the insured to recover for the full amount of his or her injuries to the extent that any applicable uninsured-motorist insurance coverages provide. Indeed, this court has recognized that the purpose of the Uninsured Motorist Act is to protect the insured, not the insurer, and thus preclude any windfall to the insurer by a reduction in benefits. Hawkins v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 302 Ark. 582, 792 S.W.2d 307 (1990). See also Travelers Ins. Co. v. Nat’l Farmers Union, 252 Ark. 624, 480 S.W.2d 585 (1972). Such coverage is for the specific purpose of protecting the insured from financially irresponsible motorists. Pardon v. Southern Farm Bureau Cas. Ins. Co., 315 Ark. 537, 868 S.W.2d 468 (1994). Moreover, when an insured purchases such coverage, he or she pays an added premium for such coverage. According to this court’s decisions enforcing other-insurance clauses, however, he or she may be entitled to recover under such added coverage only in certain circumstances. In other words, the added premium is consistently being paid, but the coverage is less than consistently being provided. Should the insurers continue to benefit from receiving premium payments from their respective clients, only to deny payment of coverage to the clients where another insurer has already paid? It seems to me that, while we have gone out of our way to avoid giving a windfall to the insured, we have inadvertently provided a windfall to the insurers, by allowing them to benefit from the payment of additional premiums for uninsured-motorist coverage. Such windfall was never intended by the Uninsured Motorist Act. See Hawkins, 302 Ark. 582, 792 S.W.2d 307. On the subject of other-insurance clauses, Professor Widiss has written: It is true, as some insurers have argued, that when the prorata provision of the Other Insurance clause [is] not enforceable, an insured who is covered by more than one uninsured motorist coverage is better off being injured by an uninsured motorist than being injured by a negligent motorist carrying the minimum coverage specified by the financial responsibility laws. The conclusion which many insurance companies draw from this fact — that they should be allowed to reduce their liability — does not necessarily follow. A premium has been paid for each of the coverages and the insurance policy has been issued. It seems both equitable and desirable to permit recovery under more than one coverage until the claimant is fully indemnified. . . . The Other Insurance provision should be modified to extend the uninsured motorist coverage in multiple coverage situations when a claimant has not been fully indemnified. To the extent that risk is thereby increased, companies can seek an increase in their premiums. Widiss, Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Ins. § 13.6 (emphasis added). I agree with Professor Widiss’s recommendation. In my dissent in Clampit v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 309 Ark. 107, 828 S.W.2d 593 (1992), I stated that I believed that anti-stacking (or other-insurance) clauses pertaining to underinsured-motorist coverage deny Arkansas policyholders their reasonable expectations of full compensation, and that such clauses accordingly violate public policy. I further believe that such clauses pertaining to uninsured-motorist coverage are equally violative of public policy, as they, too, deny policyholders their expectations of being fully compensated in the event they are injured by the actions of an uninsured motorist. I do not believe, however, that recovery under more than one policy should actually enrich or benefit an insured beyond his or her injuries. In the present case, there is no danger of Appellant receiving a windfall or double recovery, as the limits of both uninsured policies amount to little more than two-thirds of the total damages sustained by her. Accordingly, I would reverse the decision by the trial court and award Appellant the full amount of recovery under both uninsured-motorist policies. Glaze and Thornton, JJ., join in this dissent.