Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool v. Moore
Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool v. Moore
Opinion of the Court
This is the second application for interlocutory appeal made by the Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool (GIIP) that we have granted. See Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool v. Moore, 175 Ga. App. 430 (333 SE2d 383) (1985). The trial court denied GUP’s motion for summary judgment on the issue whether the notice given to Delores (Moore) Taggert by the Insurance Commissioner of Georgia, acting as Ancillary Receiver for Reserve Insurance Company (Reserve), sufficiently complied with statutory and court-ordered requirements in order to bar Taggert from participation in the distribution of Reserve’s assets. See id. at 434. We affirm the trial court’s order.
Appellee made a claim on Reserve in 1978 for personal injury protection (PIP) benefits as a result of injuries received by her son in an accident while in a vehicle insured by Reserve. Appellee received $5,000 from Reserve and subsequently allowed the policy to expire. In 1979, Reserve was declared insolvent by a court in its domiciliary state of Illinois. Acting pursuant to OCGA § 33-37-1 et seq., the Fulton County Superior Court appointed the Insurance Commissioner to serve as Ancillary Receiver and ordered him to liquidate the property of Reserve in Georgia. The court then directed the Ancillary Re
In Flewellen v. Atlanta Cas. Co., 250 Ga. 709 (300 SE2d 673) (1983), the Supreme Court held that under OCGA § 33-34-5, as also interpreted in Jones v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 156 Ga. App. 230 (274 SE2d 623) (1980), an insurance policy application form that fails to provide for the signatures required by the statute in order to reject additional optional PIP benefits automatically provides for such benefits from the very inception of the policy. Flewellen, supra at 712 (1), 715 (3). The earliest date a claim for these benefits accrues is the date on which an action on the claim could first be maintained to a successful result, i.e., the date of the accident itself. Bryant v. Allstate Ins. Co., 254 Ga. 328 (326 SE2d 753) (1985). Since such a claim must first be activated by the tendered payment of any additional premium due and the filing of proof of loss by the injured party, Flewellen, supra, we held in Moore, supra, that such a claim is contingent, or “inchoate, imperfect, and unfinished.” Id. at 432. Thus, appellee had a contingent claim for additional PIP benefits viable from the date of the accident which could have been asserted prior to the court-ordered deadline for filing claims against Reserve. Id. at 434. Appellee’s argument that it was impossible for her to comply with the deadline because she was not aware of her right to assert her claim for additional PIP until after the Jones decision was handed down (five and one-half months after the court-ordered deadline) was discounted by the court in Moore, comparing the deadline for filing claims against Reserve to the statute of limitation bar in Georgia Farm Bureau Mut. Ins. Co. v. Musgrove, 254 Ga. 333 (328 SE2d 365) (1985). Moore, supra. The rationale of Musgrove, supra, is that so-called “Jones” claims are based on violations of the legislature’s clear statutory drafting in OCGA § 33-34-5, Flewellen, supra at 713, rather than on any novel interpretation of that statute by the Jones court. Therefore, claimants’ knowledge or lack of knowledge of Jones has no bearing on the viability of the claims which parties “could have discovered ... for themselves prior to the Jones decision.” Musgrove, supra at 335.
The Insurance Commissioner, as Ancillary Receiver, was obligated to notify “all persons who may have claims” against the insurer,
Since this issue is dispositive of the appeal, we need not address that part of the trial court’s order regarding the newspaper notice published by the Ancillary Receiver in which the trial court apparently, as a matter of law, grafted an “easy and convenient” requirement onto the Fulton County Superior Court’s order.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GEORGIA INSURERS INSOLVENCY POOL v. MOORE
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published