Izev v. Nationwide Mutual, Unpublished Decision (11-17-1999)
Izev v. Nationwide Mutual, Unpublished Decision (11-17-1999)
Opinion of the Court
This cause was heard upon the record in the trial court. Each error assigned has been reviewed and the following disposition is made:
On July 23, 1997, Mr. and Mrs. Izev filed a complaint for declaratory judgment, alleging that, although Mrs. Izev had been compensated for her injuries to the full extent of her underinsured motorist coverage, Mr. Izev was entitled to a separate per person limit of underinsured motorist coverage for his derivative claim for loss of consortium. In its answer, Nationwide admitted all the material facts as alleged in the complaint. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment and on May 7, 1998, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Nationwide. The court found that the Izev's policy and R.C.
The trial court's finding that R.C.
3937.18 (H), as enacted on Ocober 20, 1994, is applicable to loss of consortium claims is in error as it denies [Mr. Izev] a meaningful remedy as contemplated by ArticleI , Section16 of the Ohio Constitution.
Assignment of Error Two
The trial court erred in finding that the limits of payment set forth in [Nationwide's] Century II Auto Policy are valid and unambiguous.
While Mr. Izev has attempted to argue the merits of these assertions, this Court declines to address them because he failed to raise them at the trial court level. As a general rule, appellate courts will not consider any error which counsel for a party complaining of the trial court's judgment could have called to the attention of the trial court, but did not. State v.Campbell (1994),
As Nationwide has pointed out, Mr. Izev neither asserted his argument regarding the alleged ambiguity in the policy language at the trial court level, nor argued that R.C.
Substantial justice has not been done to [Mr. Izev] and the case should be reversed as to the judgment of [the] Medina County Common Pleas Court and remanded for determination of the amount of coverage.
Mr. Izev has argued that the language of the underinsured motorist limits works an injustice and is, as a matter of law, unenforceable against him. He has asserted that a policy provision limiting an individual's claims and any derivative claims flowing therefrom to a single per person limit is illegal. The resolution of this assignment of error turns upon (1) the meaning of the policy language at issue, and (2) the statutory law governing Mr. Izev's policy on December 17, 1995. Because statutory law controls the interpretation of the policy, it will be addressed first.
1. The Controlling Statutory Law
The threshold question in any insurance policy interpretation case is what statutory law controls. In Ohio, the rights and duties of parties in an underinsured motorist claim are governed by the statutory law in effect on the date the parties entered into their contract for insurance. Ross v. Farmers Ins. Group ofCos. (1998),
Mr. Izev has asserted that the Ohio Supreme Court's decision in Schaefer v. Allstate Ins. Co. (1996),
Any automobile liability or motor vehicle liability policy of insurance that includes coverages offered under division (A) of this section and that provides a limit of coverage for payment for damages for bodily injury, including death, sustained by any one person in any one automobile accident, may, notwithstanding Chapter 2125, of the Revised Code, include terms and conditions to the effect that all claims resulting from or arising out of any one person's bodily injury, including death, shall collectively be subject to the limit of the policy applicable to bodily injury, including death, sustained by one person, and, for the purpose of such policy limit shall constitute a single claim. Any such policy limit shall be enforceable regardless of the number of insureds, claims made, vehicles or premiums shown in the declarations or policy, or vehicles involved in the accident.3
From this language, one can see that an insurance policy could legally restrict the policy limits for an individual's claim and all derivative claims flowing therefrom. See Nicolini-Brownfieldv. Eigensee (September 16, 1999), Franklin App. Nos. 98AP-1243 and 98AP-1244, unreported, 1999 Ohio App. LEXIS 4238, at *17. Even the Ohio Supreme Court noted that while under application ofSavoie, 67 Ohio St.3d at paragraph four of the syllabus, individuals each have a separate per person limit, the General Assembly's subsequent addition of R.C.
Having determined that a single per person limit was enforceable on November 25, 1995, this Court now turns to whether the policy in question proscribed such a restriction.
2. The Policy
Because insurance policies are written contracts, their meaning must be determined in accordance with the same rules as other written contracts. Gomolka v. State Auto. Mutl. Ins. Co.
(1982),
LIMITS OF PAYMENT
Amounts payable for uninsured [and underinsured] motorists losses.
We agree to pay losses up to the limits stated in the policy declarations. The following applies to these limits:
1. The bodily injury limit shown for any one person is for all legal damages, including all derivative claims, claimed by anyone arising out of and due to bodily injury to one person as a result of one occurrence.
The per-person limit is the total amount available when one person sustains bodily injury, including death, as a result of one occurrence. No separate limits are available to anyone for derivative claims, statutory claims or any other claims made by anyone arising out of bodily injury, including death, to one person as a result of one occurrence. (Emphasis added.)
Mr. Izev has not pointed to any specific ambiguity in the above provision, nor has he offered any explanation of how any of the provisions are susceptible of more than one meaning. Where an insurer takes advantage of R.C.
Judgment affirmed.
The Court finds that there were reasonable grounds for this appeal.
We order that a special mandate issue out of this Court, directing the Court of Common Pleas, County of Medina, to carry this judgment into execution. A certified copy of this journal entry shall constitute the mandate, pursuant to App.R. 27.
Immediately upon the filing hereof, this document shall constitute the journal entry of judgment, and it shall be file stamped by the Clerk of the Court of Appeals at which time the period for review shall begin to run. App.R. 22(E).
Costs taxed to Appellant.
Exceptions.
______________________________ BETH WHITMORE FOR THE COURT
SLABY, P.J., BATCHELDER, J., CONCUR.
Any automobile liability or motor vehicle liability policy of insurance that includes coverages offered under division (A) of this section or selected in accordance with division (C) of this section and that provides a limit of coverage for payment for damages for bodily injury, including death, sustained by any one person in any one automobile accident, may, notwithstanding Chapter 2125 of the Revised Code, include terms and conditions to the effect that all claims resulting from or arising out of any one person's bodily injury, including death, shall collectively be subject to the limit of the policy applicable to bodily injury, including death, sustained by one person, and, for the purpose of such policy limit shall constitute a single claim. Any such policy limit shall be enforceable regardless of the number of insureds, claims made, vehicles or premiums shown in the declarations or policy, or vehicles involved in the accident.
Nevertheless, pursuant to the holding in Ross,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.