Stockdale v. Allstate Fire & Cas. Ins. Co.
Stockdale v. Allstate Fire & Cas. Ins. Co.
Opinion of the Court
This case presents an unresolved question of Pennsylvania law: What effect should be given to Gallagher v. GEICO Indemnity Co. ,
I. LEGAL STANDARDS
"To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to 'state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.' " Ashcroft v. Iqbal ,
Where, as here, a federal court has authority to hear a suit by virtue of diversity jurisdiction, the court must apply state substantive law. Erie R.R. v. Tompkins ,
II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
Plaintiff, Kayla Stockdale, is a Pennsylvania resident who, at all times relevant here, resided with her parents, Mark and Jacqueline Sanders. Both Plaintiff and her parents held car insurance policies with Defendant, Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance *606Company. Plaintiff's policy (the "Stockdale Policy") provided $ 25,000 in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage for the one vehicle covered by the policy;
On June 10, 2017, while riding as a passenger in the vehicle covered by the Stockdale Policy, another driver, Ronald Pagliei, collided with Plaintiff's vehicle. She suffered severe and permanent injuries as a result of the accident, and sought recovery for those injuries. Plaintiff first made a claim against Pagliei. With the approval of Defendant, she settled that claim for $ 100,000, the limit of liability coverage under Pagliei's policy. Plaintiff also made a claim for underinsured motorist coverage under the Stockdale Policy. Defendant approved the claim and provided her with $ 25,000, the limit of underinsured motorist coverage under the Stockdale Policy.
The combined recovery, however, was insufficient to meet Plaintiff's medical needs. Accordingly, on February 7, 2018, Plaintiff made a claim under the Sanders Policy for underinsured motorist coverage, on the ground that the Sanders Policy provided that Defendant "will pay damages to an insured person for bodily injury which an insured person is legally entitled to recover," and defined "insured person" to include "any resident relative" of Mark Sanders. Because she lived with her parents at the time of the accident, Plaintiff claimed she was eligible to stack the underinsured coverage provided in the Sanders Policy with the underinsured coverage provided in the Stockdale Policy.
On February 14, 2018, Defendant denied the claim. It premised the denial on a provision of the Sanders Policy called the "household exclusion," which provided that:
Allstate will not pay any damages an insured person is legally entitled to recover because of ... bodily injury to you or a resident relative while in, on, getting into or out of or when struck by a motor vehicle owned or leased by you or a resident relative which is not insured for Underinsured Motorist Coverage under this policy.
Because she was not riding in one of the three vehicles covered by the Sanders Policy, Defendant claimed that the household *607exclusion rendered Plaintiff ineligible to stack coverage across the Sanders and Stockdale Policies.
On January 23, 2019, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued its decision in Gallagher , holding that "the household vehicle exclusion violates the MVFRL; therefore, these exclusions are unenforceable as a matter of law."
Plaintiff filed her Complaint the day the Gallagher Court announced its opinion, bringing claims for individual and class relief. As to the former, Plaintiff seeks $ 300,000 in underinsured benefits from the Sanders Policy. As to the latter, Plaintiff seeks to:
[R]epresent a class of persons injured in motor vehicle accidents from 1990 to the present as a result of the negligence of an uninsured or an underinsured motorist who were insureds under Automobile Policies providing uninsured and/or an underinsured motorist coverage in accordance with the MVFRL and where: (a) the named insured elected stacked uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage; (b) the named insured paid an additional premium for stacked uninsured and/or underinsured motorist coverage; (c) a claim was made for recovery of uninsured and/or underinsured motorist coverage under the policy; (d) the claim for recovery of uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage was denied by reason of the household exclusion; and (e) inter-policy stacking of underinsured motorist benefits was denied to an otherwise eligible claimant by reason of the household exclusion where, nonetheless, the named insured had elected and paid for stacked uninsured and/or underinsured motorist coverage under the policy.
Defendant now moves to dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint for failure to state a claim, or else dismiss the putative class action claims to the extent they are time-barred by Pennsylvania's four-year statute of limitations for contract claims.
III. DISCUSSION
A. Effect of Gallagher
Defendant denied Plaintiff's claim for underinsured motorist benefits based on the household exclusion in the Sanders Policy, an exclusion the Gallagher Court found "unenforceable."
Generally, under Pennsylvania law, a rule announced by a judicial decision is applied both retroactively-that is, to pending cases-and prospectively-to cases commenced thereafter. See In re L.J. ,
Recently, however, rare exceptions to this general rule have been permitted. See Gibson ,
Accordingly, in determining the effect of a judicial decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has instructed that the threshold question is "whether the decision announced a new rule of law," Passarello v. Grumbine ,
The gravamen of this dispute, then, is whether Gallagher warrants an exception to the general retroactive/prospective rule. Plaintiff argues that no exception is required, and the rule announced in Gallagher should be applied here. Defendant, on the other hand, argues that this is one of the rare instances where an exception is appropriate. Specifically, Defendant argues Gallagher should be given purely prospective effect only-that is, Gallagher should not apply to cases, such as this, where the operative facts predate the pronouncement of the decision.
Whether to depart from the general retroactive/prospective rule "is a matter of judicial discretion" that "must be exercised on a case by case basis." In re L.J. ,
1. New Rule
As previously stated, the "threshold test" for whether to depart from the general retroactive/prospective rule "is whether the decision establishes a new principle of law." Schreiber,
Where, as here, the decision at issue was one of statutory interpretation, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's "first pronouncement on the substance of a statutory provision," does not "announce a new rule of law." Fiore v. White ,
To answer that question, a brief history of the household exclusion's pre- Gallagher treatment under Pennsylvania law is required. To start, in both Eichelman v. Nationwide Insurance Co. ,
However, in Erie Ins. Exchange v. Baker ,
In Gallagher , however, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court switched courses, and struck down the household exclusion as "unenforceable."
Plaintiff argues that Gallagher did not announce a new rule of law because, as a plurality opinion, Baker did not constitute binding precedent. See Butta v. GEICO Casualty Co. ,
In re L.J. illustrates this point. There, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court addressed the precedential force of a pronouncement contained in a footnote from an earlier decision. The Court concluded that the footnote's pronouncement was not "binding precedent," but found "it prudent to determine whether this decision should be afforded retrospective or prospective application," because lower courts had relied upon the announcement in the past. Id. at 1087. The L.J. Court then held that the "decision does announce a new rule of law," explaining that "while this decision is not a 'fundamental break from precedent' in that the ... footnote was never precedential in the first instance, this opinion certainly 'modifies or limits' that footnote and the applicability of [the case from which the footnote came] in Pennsylvania. Accordingly, this opinion constitutes a new rule of law." Id. at 1088 ; cf. Passarello ,
Thus, even where an opinion of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court "modifies ... or limits," or "alter[s]" a prior, non-precedential decision, that opinion announces a new rule of law. That is precisely what happened in Gallagher . Even if the Pennsylvania Supreme Court was not bound by its prior decisions in Baker , it nevertheless announced a new rule of law because the decision modified or altered that earlier decisions. Accordingly, the Court concludes that Gallagher "announce[d] a new rule of law, such that an examination of retroactive or prospective application is necessary." In re L.J. ,
2. Retroactivity Analysis
Next, the Court must determine what effect to give the rule announced in Gallagher . The touchstone of this inquiry is whether there is a "substantial question that persons formerly advantaged by the old rule will be unfairly prejudiced" by application of the new rule. Blackwell ,
First, the purpose of the Gallagher rule would be undermined by limiting its application. The Gallagher Court held that the household exclusion "operate[d] as a pretext to avoid stacking," which "violate[d] the clear mandates of the waiver provisions of [the MVFRL]" and "render[ed] the ... exclusion invalid and unenforceable."
*612Second, although insurers may have relied on decisions upholding the household exclusion when drafting insurance agreements, that reliance does not justify selective prospectivity. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Gallagher stated as much: while "recogniz[ing] that this decision may disrupt the insurance industry's current practices," the Gallagher Court nevertheless invalidated the household exclusion, explaining "we are confident that the industry can and will employ its considerable resources to minimize the impact of our holding."
Indeed, in the few cases where Pennsylvania courts have applied judicial decisions in a purely prospective manner, the reliance interests at stake were of a greater magnitude than those at issue here. Most notably, in Stackhouse , the Pennsylvania Superior Court held that a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court decision abolishing common law marriage did not apply to those common law marriages entered into prior to the decision's announcement as doing so would "divest [those who entered into common law marriages prior to the decision] of rights [they] formerly enjoyed and on the existence of which [they] lawfully relied."
Finally, the administration of justice cautions strongly against departing from the general rule of retroactive/prospective rule. Applying Gallagher purely prospectively would impose an administrative burden on the courts, which would have to engage in difficult line-drawing exercises without clear guidance from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court-such as determining whether Gallagher governed cases concerning contracts entered into prior to the decision's pronouncement, but concerning facts that postdate the decision. More fundamentally, pure prospectively breaches the principle that "litigants in similar situations should be treated the same, a fundamental component of stare decisis and the rule of law generally." James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia ,
This case illustrates that concern. There is no meaningful distinction between Plaintiff and the petitioner in Gallagher : both purchased automotive insurance that contained household exclusions; at the time of their respective accidents, Pennsylvania law recognized the validity of the exclusion; and, both had their stacked claim *613denied on the basis of that exclusion. And yet, under Defendant's approach, the Gallagher plaintiff would be entitled to relief, while Plaintiff would not be-simply because she initiated her suit after the plaintiff in Gallagher initiated (and won) his. Justice does not countenance such a result. Gibson ,
Thus, the Court predicts that, as is generally the case, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would apply Gallagher both retroactively and prospectively, and Defendant's motion to dismiss Plaintiff's claim will be denied accordingly.
B. Class Allegations
Defendant argues, in the alternative, that even if Gallagher controls this case, claims asserted on behalf of the putative class predating 2015 should be dismissed as time-barred. Cf. Beam ,
Here, Plaintiff seeks to "represent a class of persons injured in motor vehicle accidents from 1990 to the present," who were denied coverage "by reason of the household exclusion." The face of the Complaint demonstrates, however, that the statute of limitations bars claims in which an insurer denied coverage or refused to arbitrate because of the household exclusion prior to January 23, 2015-four years before Plaintiff filed this putative class action. Accordingly, putative class members' claims based upon a breach of an alleged insurance contract "by reason of the household exclusion" prior to January 23, 2015 are time-barred, and will be dismissed. See Lanning v. SEPTA ,
An appropriate order follows.
"[Uninsured or 'UM'] coverage applies when an insured suffers injury or damage caused by a third-party tortfeasor who is uninsured, whereas [Underinsured or 'UIM'] coverage is triggered when a third-party tortfeasor injures or damages an insured and the tortfeasor lacks sufficient insurance coverage to compensate the insured in full." Gallagher ,
To give a stylized example of how stacking works, imagine an insured with two insurance policies. The first covered her family's two automobiles and provided $ 10,000 in underinsured motorist coverage per vehicle. The second covered the insured's motorcycle and provided $ 5,000 in underinsured motorist coverage for her bike. If the insured elected to "stack" her coverage, then she could recover a total of $ 25,000 in underinsured motorist coverage for an accident involving any of the vehicles-$ 20,000 in coverage from the first policy (intra-policy stacking) plus the $ 5,000 from the second (inter-policy stacking).
Defendant frames the issue as whether Gallagher should be applied prospectively only. But, Plaintiff commenced her suit after Gallagher was issued; thus, even if the decision were to be applied prospectively only-as Defendant suggests-the rule from Gallagher would still govern Plaintiff's claim. Instead, Defendant argues that because it entered into the Sanders Policy and denied Plaintiff's claim all before Gallagher was decided, the decision should play no part here. Thus, Defendant seeks to restrict the application of Gallagher to those cases where the operative facts of the case postdate the decision entirely, what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has described as "purely prospective effect."
While the question is squarely before this federal Court and will likely have a significant impact on both insured and insurers alike in Pennsylvania, the issue is decidedly a matter of state law, requiring this Court to predict how the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would resolve the matter. Blackwell ,
The majority splintered as to grounds for that decision. While noting that petitioner's Section 1738 argument was "initially interesting," the plurality "[u]ltimately," concluded that "[petitioner's] argument fails" because Eichelman and Colbert controlled the issue. Baker ,
Because this Court has upheld the household exclusion in the face of public policy challenges, the argument [petitioner] makes that the exclusion actually violates a statute is technically a new one. But the argument is unavailing because an enactment by the legislature-such as the MVFRL-is indeed the embodiment of public policy. We are not persuaded that our earlier decisions on this issue are distinguishable in any material way.
Notably, August Court did not even entertain the notion that Brakeman would not be applied purely prospectively.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Kayla STOCKDALE v. ALLSTATE FIRE AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published