Appeal of Blue Bird Taxi Co. of Asheville, 449
| Decision Date | 18 March 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 449,449 |
| Citation | 75 S.E.2d 156,237 N.C. 373 |
| Parties | Appeal of BLUE BIRD TAXI CO. OF ASHEVILLE, Inc. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
John C. Cheesborough, Asheville, for the petitioner, appellant.
Harry McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Waldo C. Cheek, Commissioner of Insurance, appellee.
Joyner & Howison, Raleigh, for the North Carolina Automobile Rate Administrative Office, appellee.
Counsel for the appellees argue that the experience rating plan is just in that it imposes on each included taxicab owner as far as practicable his fair share of the cost of liability insurance. They assert also that the experience rating plan is wise in that it affords a twofold encouragement to safety on the highways by offering reduced premiums to included taxicab owners who are better than average risks and by exacting increased premiums from included taxicab owners who are worse than average risks. They insist, moreover, that the differences in the premium charges for liability insurance are based on reliable evidence as to losses, and that in consequence there is no discrimination among the individual taxicab owners covered by the experience rating plan or between such taxicab owners as a group and other taxicab owners.
We are impressed in no small degree by the apparent validity of these arguments. We are nevertheless constrained to hold that the North Carolina Rate Administrative Office and the Commissioner of Insurance exceeded the powers conferred upon them by Article 25 of Chapter 58 of Volume 2B of the General Statutes in promulgating and approving the experience rating plan which imposes a premium on each taxicab owned by the petitioner for bodily injury insurance satisfying the requirements of the ordinance of the City of Asheville for the annual period beginning March 1, 1951, 52 per cent higher than that charged on each taxicab operated by the competitors of the petitioner, whose premiums are measured by the basic or manual rates.
These statutory provisions fall within the purview of the familiar and sound rule of statutory construction embodied in the terse maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius, meaning the expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. When the Legislature granted authority to the North Carolina Automobile Rate Administrative Office and the Commissioner of Insurance 'to encourage safety on the highway * * * by offering reduced premium rates under a uniform system...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Dickens v. Puryear
...unius est exclusio alterius, meaning the expression of one thing is the exclusion of another, applies. See Appeal of Blue Bird Taxi Co., 237 N.C. 373, 75 S.E.2d 156 (1953). No statute of limitations addresses the tort of intentional infliction of mental distress by name. It must, therefore,......
-
Williams v. Williams
...77, 80 (1947). The General Assembly, by declining to negate Matthews in subsequent legislation, has spoken, see In re Taxi Co., 237 N.C. 373, 376-77, 75 S.E.2d 156, 158-59 (1953) (where a statute sets forth the instances of its coverage, other coverage is necessarily excluded under the maxi......
-
Stanback v. Stanback
...of the maxim Expressio unius est exclusio alterius, meaning the expression of one thing is the exclusion of another. In re Taxi Co., 237 N.C. 373, 75 S.E.2d 156 (1953). The General Assembly, having limited the second provision to support actions, apparently did not intend the requirement to......
-
State ex rel. Hunt v. North Carolina Reinsurance Facility, 5
...the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius." 12 Strong's N.C. Index 3d, Statutes § 5.10 (1978); accord In re Bluebird Taxi Co., 237 N.C. 373, 376, 75 S.E.2d 156, 159 (1953). The rate is the price per unit of exposure that is charged a particular insured for a particular contract of ins......