Court Opinion

ID: 9730377
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:10:46.625117+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:06.122954
License: Public Domain

CHEZEM, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. First, assuming that the policies were "renewed," the statute in question contains language indicating that it applies to these "renewed" policies. Indeed, only certain types of renewed policies are excluded from coverage, as follows:
Renewals of policies issued or delivered in this state which have undergone interim policy endorsement or amendment do not constitute newly issued or delivered policies for which the insurer is required to provide the coverages described in this section.
Ind.Code § 27-7-5-2(b). Certainly, if the legislative intent was to exclude all renewed policies, there would be no need for such qualifying language in the statute.
Of course, our foremost objective in reviewing the statute is to determine and implement legislative intent. Spaulding v. International Bakers Services, Inc. (1990), Ind., 550 N.E.2d 307, 809. Every word and phrase should be given effect and meaning, and no part should be held meaningless if it can be reconciled with the rest of the statute. Id. "We examine the statute as a whole, giving words common and ordinary meaning 'and not overemphasizing a strict literal or selective reading of individual words.'" Id. The plain language of the statute is the best evidence of its meaning. Avco Financial Services v. Metro Holding Co. (1990), Ind.App., 563 N.E.2d 1323, 1325, reh. denied.
Here, the plain language indicates that legislative intent was to exclude only certain renewed policies. While the statute also provides "[it] applies only to policies first issued after December 31, 1987," we should not overemphasize a strict literal reading of the word "first." Spaulding, 550 N.E.2d at 309. We must harmonize the phrase containing the word "first" with the other phrase stating that only certain renewals do not constitute "newly issued or delivered policies for which the insurer is required to provide the coverages described in this section."
Second, the record indicates that the policles were first issued after the statute was amended in 1988. Indeed, the policy attached to the Complaint has a declarations page, which states: "Issue Date 08-24-88. In addition, it states that "it replaces and supersedes" any preceding policy. There is a distinction between a policy which has been extended or renewed, and one which has been replaced or superseded. The latter means an entirely new policy has been issued to the insured for the first time; it is "first issued." In this case, the policy in question was not continued or renewed; it was a new policy "first issued" in 1988.
This case should be affirmed. We should uphold the legislature's intent "that an insured's coverage protecting him from other drivers be of the same magnitude as his own bodily injury liability coverage." Meridian Mutual Insurance Co. v. Richie (1989), Ind., 540 N.E.2d 27, 31, vacated on other grounds, 544 N.E.2d 488. For the foregoing reasons, I dissent.