 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Youngblood v. American States Ins. Co.12/14/1993
t. Paul, 847 P.2d at 705-06. Lynn also filed an action in federal court against Allstate for unreasonable refusal to settle her claim. That claim was resolved by stipulation between the parties and Lynn's claim against Allstate was dismissed with prejudice. St. Paul, 847 P.2d at 709. During these legal proceedings between Lynn and Allstate, St. Paul filed a complaint against Allstate and Glassing to recover amounts paid to Lynn pursuant to an underinsured coverage policy. St. Paul, 847 P.2d at 707. St. Paul's complaint against Allstate was eventually dismissed because of its failure to state an actionable claim. Because Lynn's claim against Allstate had been dismissed with prejudice, Lynn had no further claim against Allstate, and, thus, there was no claim against which St. Paul could subrogate. Under the doctrine of subrogation, St. Paul "stepped into the shoes" of Lynn. St. Paul had no independent right to sue Allstate under a subrogation theory once Lynn settled. St. Paul, 847 P.2d at 709. We further held that St. Paul did have a cause of action against Glassing, as Lynn had not stipulated or settled with him. St. Paul, 847 P.2d at 709.
The holding of Reitler was further developed and discussed in Christenson. In that case, Christenson, an uninsured motorist, caused an accident and his passenger, Hinckley, was injured. Farmers Insurance Exchange (Farmers) insured Hinckley and paid $7,000 on her claim under an uninsured motorist provision. As required by the policy, Hinckley assigned her personal injury action to Farmers as part of a subrogation clause. Farmers then filed an action against Christenson for $7,000. Christenson, 683 P.2d at 1320. In that case, we addressed whether Farmers could subrogate against Hinckley's personal injury action after it paid her claim pursuant to an uninsured motorist policy. We held that Farmers, the uninsured motorist carrier, could make payment to Hinckley, and when she settled her claim or obtained a judgment against a third party, Farmers could subrogate and collect back the amount paid to Hinckley. Christenson, 683 P.2d at 1322. Again, while Farmers was entitled to subrogate against its insured's tortfeasor, by upholding the assignment of Hinckley's claim to Farmers, we allowed the indemnifying carrier to sue the tortfeasor in its own name and, thus, potentially and improperly split Hinckley's cause of action against the tortfeasor. Farmers should have been allowed to sue, but only in the non-settling indemnified party's name under a subrogation theory.
American States argues that, because of our reasoning and holding in Christenson, which as indicated above, was flawed, Reitler should not be applied to invalidate the subrogation clause at issue here. However, while Christenson limited our holding in Reitler to medical payments paid by an insurance company, Christenson did not overrule Reitler, contrary to American States' argument. If the principles of assignment and subrogation had been properly applied in those two cases, there is no conflict.
The "blurring" of the distinction between an assignment and subrogation, in our decisions in Reitler and Christenson, and the misapplication of those concepts in those cases, was unfortunate. There is a definite, legal distinction between the two doctrines, and, in Reitler and Christenson, we erred in reasoning otherwise. Despite that, the public policy considerations underlying our decision in Reitler were correct then and are equally valid here.
As stated above, the public policy considerations underpinning Reitler were three-fold: (1) the insured paid a premium for medical payment coverage; (2) the insured is the one likely to suffer most if medical pay
Page 1 2 3 4 5 Montana Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|