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Haynes v. Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District of Oregon11/13/2003
"amounts" referred to in those statutes are those set out in the "payment schedule" in ORS 806.070 and that are required to respond "in damages" for liability arising out of motor vehicle accidents. Even more specifically, ORS 806.070, which is incorporated in both ORS 806.060 and ORS 806.130, indicates that the "amounts" set out in the "payment schedule" are those amounts that are the minimum required payments for particular forms of damages, including damages arising from bodily injury, death, and injury to or destruction of property. The described features of ORS 806.060, ORS 806.070, and ORS 806.130 thus demonstrate that the phrase "pay the same amounts with respect to an accident" in ORS 806.130(3) refers to amounts relating to forms of damages, including those enumerated in the payment schedule in ORS 806.070. Again, ORS 742.061 itself--consistently with the usual understanding of the terms--indicates that attorney fees are not a form of damages in the particular case. For all of those reasons, we conclude that the "amounts" referred to in ORS 806.130(3) do not include attorney fees as provided in ORS 742.061.
We appreciate that ORS 742.061 also uses the term "amount" and that it does so, not in relation to "damages" but in relation to "any tender made by the defendant in the action" and, most significantly here, in relation to attorney fees. See ORS 742.061(1) (referring to "a reasonable amount to be fixed by the court as attorney fees"). As the parties' arguments recognize, however, the dispositive inquiry here is the meaning of the term "amounts" in the phrase "pay the same amounts" in ORS 806.130(3).
Nor is our conclusion regarding that meaning undermined by the fact, relied on by plaintiff, that ORS 806.130(3) contains the phrase "including uninsured motorist coverage and liability coverage to at least the amounts specified in ORS 806.070." (Emphasis added.) It is true that the emphasized usage indicates that UM and liability coverage amounts are not necessarily the only "amounts" that a self-insurer may be required to pay under ORS 806.130(3). Nevertheless, as discussed above, the text of the relevant provisions indicates that the term "amounts" in that provision refers to amounts comprising various forms of "damages." UM and liability coverage are not the only forms of damages encompassed in motor vehicle liability insurance policies. See, e.g., ORS 742.520 (requiring motor vehicle liability insurance policies covering "private passenger motor vehicles" to include personal injury protection benefits). Accordingly, the apparently nonexclusive reference in ORS 806.130(3) to UM and liability coverage does not compel the conclusion that the term "amounts" in that provision includes attorney fees.
Finally, plaintiff argues that an interpretation of ORS 806.130(3) that excludes payment for attorney fees undermines the legislature's apparent purpose of establishing parity between remedies available to injured persons under insurance policies and those available pursuant to self-insurance. Assuming that plaintiff's point is well taken, that problem is for the legislature, not this court, to address.
Affirmed.
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