Court Opinion

ID: 9855142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:20:07.236965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:42.006194
License: Public Domain

McMurray, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
The majority opinion in this case brings before this court the same issues which were previously resolved by a divided court in Clabo v. Tennessee Farmers Mut. Ins. Co., 202 Ga. App. 110 (413 SE2d 476) (cert. denied by the Supreme Court of Georgia). I believe that the Clabo decision is correct, and that application of that decision in the case sub judice would require a partial reversal of the trial court’s judgment. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
In the time since Clabo was decided half of the judges who joined in that majority opinion have left the court while the three dissenting judges remain. Thus, prior to consideration of this case, the Court is equally divided into three groups who have either previously supported one side or the other of this controversy, or have not spoken on this issue.
Distilled to the simplest possible explanation, Clabo involves an application of the overriding public policy of complete liability coverage in connection with motor vehicles for the protection of the public and insureds, and any exclusions broader than the tort immunity of this state are against public policy and will not be upheld. GEICO v. Dickey, 255 Ga. 661 (340 SE2d 595). Few exceptions to this preference for coverage have been identified. Clabo at 112.
Undoubtedly, the division of this court stems in large part from certain language in the decision of Southern Guar. Ins. Co. v. Preferred Risk Mut. Ins. Co., 257 Ga. 355 (359 SE2d 665), where the Supreme Court found that an exclusion clause did not offend public policy and should be upheld. However, the Supreme Court subsequently noted that that case involved “a peculiar set of facts under which neither the injured party nor the insured was left unprotected.” Stepho v. Allstate Ins. Co., 259 Ga. 475, 476 (1) (383 SE2d 887). In the words of the Stepho court: “We therefore concluded that the exclusion clause under those unusual circumstances did not offend public policy and should be upheld.” (Emphasis supplied.) Id. at 476.
Furthermore, in Stepho, the Supreme Court undertook to synthesize its decisions in Southern Guaranty and GEICO v. Dickey, 255 Ga. 661, supra. Inasmuch as Stepho attempted to highlight the “clear thread of consistency” which runs through Southern Guaranty and related cases, perhaps Southern Guaranty should be remembered more for the manner in which it is described in Stepho than for the exact words of the decision itself.
In my view, it is significant that in Stepho, the Supreme Court in distinguishing the related cases makes specific reference to the fact *780that the injured insured party in Southern Guaranty was protected because of the availability of insurance proceeds from the alleged tortfeasor’s policy. In the case sub judice, there is no indication as to whether the alleged tortfeasor is protected by any separate insurance policy. Thus, as in Clabo, I would hold that the exclusion at issue in the case sub judice is contrary to public policy to the extent that it will cause Stephens, an alleged tortfeasor and insured under the policy, to be unprotected up to the amount of mandatory liability coverage. In my view, the trial court erred in determining that Safeway had no obligation to defend Stephens since there was no evidence showing that Stephens was protected by any other insurance policy.
Decided November 4, 1993.
Williams & Henry, Phillip C. Henry, Arthur L. Myers, Jr., Richard A. Thane, Bannister & Black, Charles C. Black, for appellant.
Crim & Bassler, Nikolai Makarenko, Jr., Charles W. Lane, for appellee.
Under the particular facts and circumstances of the case sub judice, I cannot agree that the decision in Southeastern Fidelity Ins. Co. v. Chaney, 259 Ga. 474 (381 SE2d 747) can be distinguished from the case sub judice. In my view, the crux of that decision seems to be stated in Division 4 of that opinion predicated upon the GEICO decision and the test stated therein. That the alleged tortfeasor is a named insured on the policy in question is revealed in the account of the facts of that case, but the analysis makes no connection between that fact and the holding of the case. Southern Guaranty is mentioned only in connection with the synthesis contained in Stepho. Consequently, Southeastern Fidelity Ins. Co. v. Chaney, 259 Ga. 474, supra, which is one of the most recent Supreme Court decisions relevant to this controversy, reiterates the prominence of the test stated in GEICO and upon which Clabo is predicated, and should be recognized as controlling precedent in the case sub judice.
I am authorized to state that Chief Judge Pope, Judge Cooper and Judge Blackburn join in this dissent.