Mitchell v. Prudential Property & Casualty Insurance
Mitchell v. Prudential Property & Casualty Insurance
Opinion of the Court
The parties are before this court upon the lower court’s denial of appellant’s petition to compel a second arbitration hearing, involving an automobile accident in which appellant was involved, in pursuance of a claim against a party different than the one he brought suit against in the first arbitration proceedings. Appellant was involved in the automobile accident at an intersection with an identified and insured driver whom appellant averred was the cause of the accident. Subsequently an arbitration panel trying the case between appellant and the identified and insured driver rendered an award in favor of the driver and against appellant.
The insurance policy under which appellant was insured provides uninsured motorist coverage under the following conditions:
If you’ve paid for this coverage (see Declarations Page), we’ll pay you the amount you should have collected as*331 damages for bodily injury from the person or organization responsible for the car accident in which you are injured, but only when you could not collect because:
The person or organization responsible for the accident has no liability insurance or had inadequate (less than the amount required by your state’s financial responsibility law) liability insurance coverage at the time of the accident.
The person or organization responsible for the accident has adequate liability insurance coverage at the time of the accident, but, for some reason, the company writing the insurance denies coverage.
Neither the driver nor the owner of the car which caused injury by hitting a person insured under this part (or by hitting a car that person was occupying at the time of the accident) can be identified.
Appellee, Prudential, contends that appellant’s claim falls under the last paragraph, supra, of the uninsured motorist provision and that this paragraph applies only to hit-and-run situations. Appellant argues that the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Act
While it would certainly eliminate the possibility of fraud to hold the physical contact clause valid, it would also eliminate any hope of recovery in cases clearly involving another negligent motorist who has avoided liability by getting away. This latter situation is surely within the contemplation of the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Act, and the possibility of fraud can be mitigated by the burden of proof placed on the claimant. If the injured party can sustain the burden of proof that an accident did occur, he should be entitled to recover, regardless of the actuality of physical contact.
Under Webb, supra, Pennsylvania’s Uninsured Motorist Coverage Act includes accidents which are caused by a driver whose vehicle did not come in contact with a claimant’s car. Here we must decide Prudential’s contention that appellant’s failure to claim in his first arbitration that an unidentifiable parked vehicle obscured his vision so that he collided with another car precludes a second arbitration under the uninsured motorist provision of appellant’s policy.
Thus we must decide whether appellant can receive compensation for his injuries under both the no-fault and the uninsured motorist provisions of his policy. If double recovery is allowed then a further question arises as to whether appellant had to advance his uninsured motorist claim at the first arbitration when the no-fault provisions of his policy were litigated.
In keeping with the legislative mandate of liberal construction of the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Act our courts have demonstrated a propensity for deciding that a party can receive benefits under both the no-fault and uninsured motorist protection of his automobile insurance policy, so long as these benefits are not duplicated. (See infra). In State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Williams, 481 Pa. 130, 392 A.2d 281 (1978) our Supreme Court concluded that
Where there exists a valid contract of insurance which contains uninsured motorist coverage, an insurance carrier is obligated to compensate the insured for damages inflicted upon the insured because of the conduct of the owner and/or operator of an uninsured motor vehicle except for three statutory exclusions. An insurance*334 carrier is not obligated to compensate an insured within the ambit of the uninsured motorist provision for:
1. Property damage.
2. Bodily injury damages when the insured or his representative has without written consent of the insurance carrier settled or prosecuted to judgment any action against any person or persons liable for such injuries.
3. Any damage, the payment of which would be for the direct or indirect benefit of a workmen’s compensation carrier or any person who would qualify as a self-insurer under any workmen’s compensation law.
Relying on Williams as precedent our court in Brader v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, 270 Pa.Super. 258, 411 A.2d 516 (1979), invalidated an exclusionary clause in the insurer’s uninsured motorist policy which allowed setoff of no-fault benefits received by the insured against benefits payable under the insured’s uninsured motorist policy. Our court stated that an insured should be allowed to recover under the uninsured motorist provision of his insurance policy (up to the policy’s limits) those actual damages suffered which exceeded the amount of no-fault insurance benefits received and owing. In Tubner v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 496 Pa. 215, 436 A.2d 621 (1981), the court held that assigned insurers are obligated precisely as if they had issued basic loss insurance policies and are required to pay not only basic loss benefits but also uninsured motorist benefits for general (non-economic) damages not recoverable under no-fault basic loss protection. Tubner was later cited as the correct statement of Pennsylvania law in Tucci v. State Farm Insurance Company, 503 Pa. 447, 469 A.2d 1025 (1983), wherein the court held that uninsured motorist provisions do not provide double recovery of economic benefits but do allow compensation for actual special damages an insured has suffered.
From this line of cases we can gleen that in addition to basic loss benefits an insured may collect for general damages under the uninsured motorist provision of his
It is well settled that arbitration proceedings are informal adversarial hearings in which the arbitrators are not bound by the technical rules of civil procedure. Where the parties submit their controversy to arbitration and make no provision for the mode of conducting the proceedings, the parties thereby dispense with the technical rules. P.L.E. Arbitration § 10 (1984); Rosenbaum et al. v. Drucker et al., 346 Pa. 434, 31 A.2d 117 (1943). Moreover, Rule 2227 Pa.R.C.P. provides for compulsory joinder of parties in very limited situations.
Therefore, we conclude that appellant is entitled to a second arbitration hearing, the parties to which are appellant and Prudential, to determine whether the unidentifiable parked truck was in fact the legal cause of his accident. Our decision is in keeping with the legislative mandate of liberal construction of the Uninsured Motorist Coverage Act and the decision of our court in Webb, supra.
Reversed and remanded. Jurisdiction relinquished.
. Mitchell v. Baratía, Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, June Term 1980 No. 506.
. Act of August 14, 1963, P.L. 909 § 1 as amended December 19, 1968 P.L. 1254 No. 397 § 140 P.S. § 2000. The pertinent part of the Act reads as follows:
(a) No motor vehicle liability policy of insurance insuring against loss resulting from liability imposed by law for bodily injury or death suffered by any person arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this State, unless coverage is provided therein or supplemental thereto in limits for bodily injury or death as fixed from time to time by the General Assembly in section 1421 of article XIV of "The Vehicle Code,” act of April 29, 1959 (P.L.58), under provisions approved by the Insurance Commissioner, for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death resulting therefrom____
. Rule 2227. Compulsory Joinder
(a) Persons having only a joint interest in the subject matter of an action must be joined on the same side as plaintiffs or defendants.
(b) If a person who must be joined as a plaintiff refuses to join, he shall, in a proper case, be made a defendant or an involuntary plaintiff when the substantive law permits such involuntary joinder.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting statement:
I dissent. I believe that the majority opinion opens the door to unlimited fraudulent claimants, who could contend ad infinitum that one unidentifiable vehicle after another caused injury until a responsive arbitration panel was found. Such cannot be the law — it violates common sense to say the very least.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Riney MITCHELL, Appellant, v. PRUDENTIAL PROPERTY & CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY
- Cited By
- 12 cases
- Status
- Published