U.S. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Estate of Ward
U.S. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Estate of Ward
Opinion of the Court
***202¶1 The United States District Court for the District of Montana certified a question to this Court to address the Estate of Darrell L. Ward's third-party claim to stacked liability limits in an aircraft insurance policy that covered multiple aircraft. We accepted the question and have reformulated it pursuant to M. R. App. P. 15(4) as follows:
Is the Estate of Darrell L. Ward entitled to stack the limits of liability coverage for three separate aircraft under the terms of an insurance policy issued to the pilot of an aircraft in which Ward was a passenger at the time it crashed?
¶2 We conclude that the answer to the reformulated question is no.
PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND
¶3 Mark Melotz was piloting his aircraft, FAA Number N9936T, with Darrell Ward as a passenger. The plane crashed, and both Melotz and Ward were killed. At the time of *383the accident, Melotz insured N9936T and two other aircraft under one insurance policy issued by U.S. Specialty Insurance Company ("USSIC"). Melotz paid a separate premium for each aircraft.
¶4 The policy's applicable coverage provision provides as follows:
1. What We Cover
We will pay damages you , and anyone we protect, are legally required to pay for bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence during the policy period.
...
e. Coverage DL covers bodily injury to passengers and others and property damage in a combined limit of liability for each occurrence which includes a lower limit for each passenger .
The most we will pay for bodily injury to each passenger is shown in item 6DL opposite "each person". The most we will pay for all bodily injury and property damage is shown in item 6DL opposite "each occurrence".
The policy identifies each aircraft on the coverage identification page in item 6 with a $100,000 limit for "each person," and a $1,000,000 limit for "each occurrence," as follows:
The policy defines an "occurrence" as "a sudden event ... involving the aircraft during the policy period, neither expected nor intended by you , that causes bodily injury ."
¶5 Following Ward's death, USSIC paid Ward's Estate $100,000-the per-passenger limit for bodily injury claims involving N9936T. The Estate argued that it was entitled to stack the coverage of each aircraft's per-passenger limit, for a total of $300,000. USSIC filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, seeking a declaration that it was under no duty or obligation to pay more than $100,000 to Ward's Estate under the terms of the policy and that USSIC's aircraft policy coverage for passengers cannot be stacked. The Estate and USSIC submitted cross-motions for summary judgment. The U.S. District Court certified to this Court the question of stacking insurance coverage limits in aviation cases.
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶6 M. R. App. P. 15(3) permits this Court to answer a question of law certified to it by another qualifying court. Our review of a certified question is "purely an interpretation of the law as applied to the agreed facts underlying the action." N. Pac. Ins. Co. v. Stucky ,
DISCUSSION
¶7 The interpretation of an insurance contract is a question of law. Fisher v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. ,
¶8 The USSIC policy provides coverage in a "combined limit of liability for each occurrence which includes a lower limit for each passenger ." The Coverages and Limits of Liability table states, "The most we will pay under each coverage we provide is shown below for each aircraft." The policy defines aircraft as the aircraft shown on the Coverage Identification Page of the policy, where N9936T and two other aircraft are listed. The limit of liability for each aircraft is $100,000 for each passenger, up to a combined limit of $1,000,000 for each occurrence. An occurrence is a "sudden event ... involving the aircraft ... that causes bodily injury ." (Bold emphasis in original; italicized emphasis added). The policy does not define the word "involving," but a common-sense reading of that term makes plain that it refers to the aircraft that is a part of the sudden event that caused bodily injury. See Involve, Oxford English Dictionary (Compact ed. 1971) ("to enfold, envelop, entangle, include"). The aircraft that was part of the crash resulting in Ward's and Melotz's deaths was N9936T. Although the word "aircraft" could refer to either the singular or the plural, the provision must be read as a whole. See Farmers All. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Holeman ,
¶9 An unambiguous insurance provision is enforced unless the provision violates public policy or is against good morals. Fisher , ¶ 25. Having determined that the USSIC policy unambiguously includes only the aircraft that is part of the sudden event, we next consider the Estate's argument that public policy requires the stacking of the third-party liability coverage. "As a general rule, the Montana public policy is prescribed by the legislature through its enactment of statutes." Hardy v. Progressive Specialty Ins. Co. ,
¶10 Insurance provisions that violate express statutes are contrary to public policy and void. Fisher , ¶ 25. There is no Montana ***205statute that applies specifically to aviation policies. Section 33-23-203(1), MCA, pertains to the stacking of coverage limits on "motor vehicle liability policies." Montana law defines both motor vehicle and aircraft. " 'Motor vehicle' means a vehicle propelled by its own power and designed primarily to transport persons or property on the highways of the state." Section 33-23-204(1)(a), MCA. " 'Aircraft' means a contrivance used or designed for navigation of or flight in the air." Section 67-1-101(4), MCA. Section 33-23-203, MCA, by its terms does not apply to aircraft liability policies. Indeed, Montana does not statutorily regulate aviation insurance in any manner. Compare with, e.g. , Haw. Admin. R. § 19-17.1-8 (Hawaii law requires those persons renting hangar space at public airports to maintain general liability insurance);
¶11 As we observed in Fisher , ¶ 33, when there is no statute guiding the applicable policy, insurance provisions still may be against public policy and therefore void. We have, for example, voided insurance policies' subrogation clauses when they required the insured to reimburse contractual medical *385payments ("med-pay") benefits from their settlements with a third-party tortfeasor. See, e.g. , Youngblood v. Am. States Ins. Co. ,
¶12 The policy at issue here does not fall under either of these situations. There is no subrogation clause at issue, nor is the coverage illusory, because the Estate received the maximum benefits of the applicable coverage for the involved aircraft. Melotz paid a premium to cover each aircraft, with benefits limited to $100,000 per passenger and $1,000,000 per occurrence. The policy allowed simultaneous coverage for pilots other than Melotz if they met the Open Pilot Warranty for the named aircraft.
¶13 The Estate argues that the reasonable expectations doctrine requires that USSIC honor the combined coverages Melotz purchased because it charged multiple premiums for multiple coverages. Melotz adds that he had an expectation that the liability coverage purchased for N9936T would be commensurate with all premiums he paid, and because he paid multiple premiums the coverages therefore should be stacked. The " 'reasonable expectations doctrine' mandates that, unless the terms of an insurance policy 'clearly demonstrate an intent to exclude coverage,' an insurance buyer's 'objectively reasonable expectations' regarding the nature of the policy 'should be honored notwithstanding the fact that a painstaking study of the policy would have negated those expectations.' " Lenz v. FSC Secs. Corp. ,
***207the insurer would cause 'an ordinary, objectively reasonable person' to believe that the coverage exists." Lenz , ¶ 29 (quoting Bailey v. Lincoln Gen. Ins. Co. ,
¶14 Whether a claimant has a reasonable expectation to stack insurance coverage depends on the plain, ordinary language of the policy and the status of the claimant. In Chilberg v. Rose ,
*386Chilberg was injured when the vehicle in which he was a passenger was in an accident. Chilberg ,
¶15 We followed similar reasoning in Lierboe v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company ,
¶16 In contrast, we have held that an insured claimant has a reasonable expectation to recover up to the limits for which the insurer receives separate premiums when the coverage is personal to the insured. Bennett v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. ,
*387¶17 Relying on Bennett , we clarified in Holeman that a passenger in a covered automobile is entitled to stack underinsured motorist coverages, even if he didn't pay the premiums, when he was an ***209"insured" under the policy. Holeman , ¶¶ 42-44. Holeman was a passenger in an insured vehicle involved in an accident, and the premiums were paid by the owner of the vehicle. Holeman , ¶¶ 7, 11. For purposes of underinsured motorist and med-pay coverage as defined in the policy, Holeman was an "insured." Holeman , ¶ 11. The policy provided that the insurer is required to pay "all sums the 'insured' is legally entitled to recover." Holeman , ¶ 12. This Court reaffirmed that "the justification for stacking lies not in who has paid for the extra protection, but rather that the protection has been purchased," and "the benefits flow to all persons insured." Holeman , ¶ 39 (quoting Sayers v. Safeco Ins. Co. ,
¶18 The Estate argues that liability coverage under the aircraft policy is, for "all intents and purposes, 'personal and portable,' " and stacking should be allowed. The Estate maintains that since the liability policy "followed" Melotz to newly acquired aircraft, temporary substitute aircraft, and aircraft that he did not own, it was personal and portable. In Jacobson v. Implement Dealers Mutual Insurance Company ,
¶19 The plain language of the USSIC policy and the Estate's status do not entitle it to a reasonable expectation of stacked liability coverage. The policy defines passenger as "any person who is in the aircraft or getting in or out of it." Coverage is limited to the aircraft involved in the crash. As a passenger in N9936T, Ward was an insured under that policy only. Ward did not have a connection to the other two aircraft because he was not a passenger in either of those aircraft and he was not an insured. The policy states that "the most" USSIC will pay per passenger is $100,000 for each occurrence. Similar to Lierboe and Chilberg , the plain language of the policy makes clear that the aircraft not involved in an accident are not part of the occurrence and coverage for those aircraft is not available for that accident. Ward was not an insured and did not have a reasonable expectation of benefits for additional aircraft owned by Melotz that were not "involved" in the crash.
¶20 Finally, the Estate of Melotz does not have a reasonable expectation under the plain language of the policy that Ward is entitled to stack the coverages. Unlike in Holeman , although Melotz paid premiums for three separate polices, Ward was not an "insured" under Melotz's policies for the uninvolved aircraft. And Melotz did not seek benefits under the policy's "liability to others"
*388coverage. Melotz did not have a reasonable expectation that a third party would be entitled to stack coverages for which that party was not an insured. Melotz paid for coverage that would pay liability damages for bodily injury caused by an occurrence with a separate coverage limit for each aircraft. Any expectation that a passenger would recover more than the $100,000 limit for the aircraft involved in a crash is not objectively reasonable under a common-sense reading of the policy. See Fisher , ¶¶ 13, 22.
CONCLUSION
¶21 The plain, unambiguous language of the contract limits the coverage to the aircraft that is involved in an accident. There is no statute or public policy that mandates payment of the cumulative coverage for separate aircraft in an aviation liability insurance policy that does not provide for such payment. We hold that Melotz's USSIC policy is not subject to stacking of its passenger liability coverages, and we therefore answer "no" to the reformulated certified question.
We Concur:
MIKE McGRATH, C.J.
JAMES JEREMIAH SHEA, J.
JIM RICE, J.
LAURIE McKINNON, J.
DIRK M. SANDEFUR, J.
INGRID GUSTAFSON, J.
"General aviation" refers to aviation that is neither military aviation nor commercial aviation conducted pursuant to certification under
Under N9936T, the Open Pilot Warranty provides coverage for "[a]ny pilot having logged a minimum of 300 hours total time and 10 hours in the same make and model as [that] aircraft" is covered under the policy. Each of the other insured aircraft carried its own requirements for pilot qualifications.
Concurring Opinion
***211¶22 I agree with the Court's conclusion that the language of the insurance contract limits liability coverage to the aircraft that is involved in an accident. I also agree that the provisions of § 33-23-203, MCA, do not apply to aircraft or airplanes and, further, that Montana does not statutorily regulate aviation insurance in any manner. Normally, Montana's public policy "is prescribed by the legislature through its enactment of statutes." Fisher , ¶ 25. There being no legislatively determined public policy relating to aviation insurance, the Court turns to its precedent prohibiting anti-stacking of first-party motor vehicle coverages to explain why there is no stacking of aviation third-party liability coverage. Assuming our precedent declaring the public policy in the context of motor vehicle insurance is likewise appropriate to determine public policy for aviation insurance, the Court nonetheless fails to clearly ground its rationale on the fundamental distinction between first-party insurance coverage and third-party liability coverage. I write separately to address this important distinction upon which I would address the certified question.
¶23 This Court has required the stacking of vehicle insurance coverage when the claimant is within the specific policy's definition of "insured" and when the claimant is a first party seeking to stack "personal and portable" coverages for which the claimant paid separate premiums. The instances in which this Court has required the stacking of motor vehicle coverages, despite the policies' terms providing otherwise, have been limited to first-party claimants seeking to stack uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist, and medical payment coverages. See Hardy , ¶ 42 ; Ruckdaschel v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. ,
***212Chilberg ,
¶24 In my opinion, the Court does not sufficiently address this fundamental distinction between first-party insurance coverage and third-party liability coverage. The distinction, together with a consideration of the policy's language, permits us to easily answer the certified question as presented. An insurer may not prohibit stacking when doing so would defeat coverage for which an insured paid valuable consideration. Here, the Estate of Darrell L. Ward, a third-party claimant, seeks to stack liability coverages that Melotz purchased for aircraft not involved in the accident. Because the Estate is a third-party claimant, not a named insured under the policy, it is not entitled to stack liability coverages Melotz, the first-party insured, purchased for other aircraft not involved in the accident at issue. Additionally, to the extent The Estate of Melotz, as a first party, asserts that liability coverage for aircraft not involved in the accident should be stacked with coverage purchased for N9936T, the clear language of the policy defeats any reasonable expectation that Melotz is entitled to stack coverages. The policy clearly states that liability coverage is connected only to the named aircraft. I would have determined that the certified question presented by the United States District Court does not need reformulating, as it correctly identifies the third-party nature of the Estate's claim. I otherwise concur with the Court's analysis and its ultimate holding.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- U.S. SPECIALTY INSURANCE COMPANY, and Counter-Defendant v. The ESTATE OF Darrell L. WARD and the Estate of Mark Melotz, The Estate of Darrell L. Ward, Counter-Claimant v. U.S. Specialty Insurance Company, Counter-Defendant.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published