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Crabtree v. Estate of Crabtree11/9/2005
The plaintiffs in this case were injured in an accident as passengers in a car driven by their father while he was intoxicated. After their father died of unrelated causes, the children brought this suit against his estate. We hold that Indiana law does not permit recovery of punitive damages from a decedent's estate. We also hold that under the terms of this policy, the final judgment should exclude damages included in the verdict that were already satisfied by payments under the defendant's medical expenses coverage.
Facts and Procedural History
Alicia and Jacelyn Crabtree were passengers when the car driven by their father, Jackie Crabtree, Jr., ("Crabtree") was involved in an accident. Crabtree's breath test indicated .15% blood alcohol content and the investigating officer's report concluded that Crabtree was at fault for failure to yield to the oncoming vehicle. The car was insured by Allstate Insurance Company, and Allstate made payments under the Medical Payments coverage in amounts of $3,203.05 for Alicia and $3,648.75 for Jacelyn.
Approximately one year later, Crabtree died of causes unrelated to the accident. The children, by their mother, Kimberly Kemp, sued Crabtree's estate for compensatory and punitive damages. The trial court granted the Estate's motion to dismiss the punitive damages claim, and the claim for compensatory damages was tried to a jury, resulting in an award of $11,500.00 to each child. On the Estate's motion, the trial court reduced the judgments by the amounts that Allstate had paid to the children's medical service providers under the Medical Payments coverage of the policy insuring the car that Crabtree was driving.
The plaintiffs appealed, challenging the trial court's dismissal of their claim for punitive damages and also the reduction of their awards for medical payments. The Court of Appeals held that the punitive damages claim survived Crabtree's death, and that the medical payments were not "advance payments" under the statute permitting reduction of an award to the extent of advance payments by an insurer. Rather, Allstate was entitled to be reimbursed as a subrogee for the medical payments made to Alicia and Jacelyn, which required that it bear a proportionate share of the children's litigation expenses in collecting from the Estate. Crabtree v. Crabtree, 809 N.E.2d 433, 438, 442 (Ind. Ct. App. 2004). We granted transfer. Crabtree v. Crabtree, 822 N.E.2d 977 (Ind. 2004).
I. Punitive Damages
The plaintiffs sought to recover punitive damages from Crabtree's estate. We take the allegations of the complaint as true for purposes of this appeal and review de novo the trial court's order dismissing the punitive damages claim because it involves a pure question of law. Niksich v. Cotton, 810 N.E.2d 1003, 1004 (Ind. 2004); Randolph v. Methodist Hosp., Inc., 793 N.E.2d 231, 234 (Ind. Ct. App. 2003), trans. denied. We will affirm the trial court's grant of a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim only if the complaint states a set of facts which, even if proved, do not support the relief requested in the complaint. City of New Haven v. Reichhart, 748 N.E.2d 374, 377-78 (Ind. 2001).
The plaintiffs cite Indiana's Survival Statute, Indiana Code chapter 34-9-3 (2004). Section 1 of the Survival Statute was designed to overrule the common law rule that a claim evaporated with the death of the defendant. It provides that if "an individual who is . . . liable in a cause of action dies, the cause of action survives . . ." I.C. ยง 34-9-3-1(a). Based on this statutory language, the plaintiffs contend that their claim for punitive damages survives Crabtree's death. This section does not address the
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