Court Opinion

ID: 9561185
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:04:53.691643+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:40.966328
License: Public Domain

Justice Martin
concurring in the result.
I concur in the result of the majority opinion but write separately to articulate my disagreement with part of the reasoning of the majority opinion and to express my concern about the result we are compelled to reach under the relevant language of the North Carolina Motor Vehicle Safety and Financial Responsibility Act (the Act).
I respectfully disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the general rule of lex loci contractus controls in this case. Rather, North Carolina’s contacts with the interests insured by the Fortune policy are sufficient to make the policy “subject to” North Carolina law under N.C.G.S. § 58-3-1. See Collins & Aikman Corp. v. Hartford *432Accident & Indem. Co., 335 N.C. 91, 95, 436 S.E.2d 243, 246 (1993); see also Martin v. Continental Ins. Co., 123 N.C. App. 650, 655-56, 474 S.E.2d 146, 148-49 (1996).
Nevertheless, as determined by the majority, the minimum limits of coverage set forth in the Act do not apply to the Fortune policy because of the language of this statute. In short, the Act applies only to a “motor vehicle liability policy” that is “issued ... by an insurance carrier duly authorized to transact business in this State.” N.C.G.S. § 20-279.21(a) (1999). Because the Fortune policy was not issued in North Carolina and Fortune is not authorized to transact business in this state, the Fortune policy may not be conformed to the minimum limits of the Act under the express language of the statute.
It is well settled, however, that legal protection of innocent victims who are injured by financially irresponsible motorists is the fundamental purpose of the Act. See Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Aetna Life & Cas. Co., 283 N.C. 87, 90, 194 S.E.2d 834, 837 (1973); Hartford Underwriters Ins. Co. v. Becks, 123 N.C. App. 489, 492, 473 S.E.2d 427, 429 (1996), disc. rev. denied and cert. denied, 345 N.C. 641, 483 S.E.2d 708 (1997).
In the instant case, a motor vehicle operator who was at least temporarily residing in North Carolina negligently inflicted injuries upon two North Carolina residents. Nevertheless, because the responsible driver’s insurance policy was issued in a no-fault state and incorporated no-fault provisions which do not afford liability coverage under these circumstances, the injured parties, two North Carolina residents, are left without an adequate legal remedy.
This result is fundamentally at odds with the purpose of the North Carolina Motor Vehicle Safety and Financial Responsibility Act. Under the result permitted in this case, otherwise eligible drivers may obtain insurance in no-fault jurisdictions and inflict injuries with practical impunity. This result is inconsistent with the increasing interstate mobility of our society and renders meaningless the protections intended for innocent motorists under the Act.
Justices Lake and Freeman join in this concurring opinion.