Coleman v. Cumis Ins. Soc., Inc.

• Decision Date: 19 May 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-175.,88-175.
• Citation: 558 A.2d 1169
• Parties: Ivory L. COLEMAN, Jr., Appellant, v. CUMIS INSURANCE SOCIETY, INC., and Dairyland Insurance Company, Appellees.
• Court: D.C. Court of Appeals

558 A.2d 1169

Ivory L. COLEMAN, Jr., Appellant, v. CUMIS INSURANCE SOCIETY, INC., and Dairyland Insurance Company, Appellees.

No. 88-175.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Submitted January 5, 1989.

Decided May 19, 1989.

James J.M. Vaughan and Brent E. Walthall were on the brief, for appellant.

Leonard C. Greenebaum, Harlan L. Weiss and Thomas C. Junker, Washington, D.C., were on the brief, for appellee Cumis Ins. Soc., Inc.

Melvin R. Wright, Rockville, Md., was on the brief, for appellee Dairyland Ins. Co.

Before ROGERS, Chief Judge, FERREN, Associate Judge, and KERN, Senior Judge.

ROGERS, Chief Judge:

This appeal presents the question of whether the District of Columbia Compulsory/No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act of 1982 (No-Fault Act)¹ required motorcycles to be insured in 1984 as a precondition to recovery by the motorcyclist of statutory personal injury protection (PIP) benefits. We answer this question in the negative based on our examination of the legislative history of the No-Fault Act and a 1986 amendment which requires motorcycles to have such insurance. Accordingly, we hold that appellant Ivory L. Coleman, Jr., who appeals from a grant of summary judgment in favor of appellees, is eligible to recover PIP benefits² although he did not have motorcycle insurance at the time of the accident. We further hold that Dairyland Insurance Company, the insurer of the automobile involved in the 1984 accident, is liable to appellant for the PIP benefits and not Cumis Insurance Society since Cumis, the insurer of appellant's automobile, which was not involved in the accident, was entitled under the No-Fault Act to limit its liability for a non-resident's PIP coverage in the District to the insured vehicle.

I

The trial court granted summary judgment to appellees on the basis of undisputed facts.³ On February 26, 1984, appellant, a resident of Virginia, was in an accident in the District of Columbia involving his motorcycle and an automobile driven by Lucious Johnson. Appellant, who had no insurance coverage for his motorcycle, suffered personal injuries, lost wages and medical bills. He filed suit to recover PIP benefits under the No-Fault Act against Cumis Insurance Society (Cumis), the insurer of his 1972 Pontiac, which was registered in Virginia and not involved in the accident, and Dairyland Insurance Company (Dairyland), the insurer of Lucious Johnson's automobile.

The two critical provisions of the No-Fault Act at issue concern the definitions of a motorcycle and a motor vehicle. At the time of the accident, the No-Fault Act provided that "`motorcycle' means any motor vehicle having either a tandem arrangement of 2 wheels or a tricyclic arrangement of 8 wheels and having a seat or saddle for the use of the operator." D.C.Code § 35-2102(16). The term "motor vehicle" was defined to mean any device propelled by an internal combustion engine, electricity, or steam, other than a motorcycle. Id. § 35-2102(17). Other provisions of the No-Fault Act did not definitively instruct whether the mandated No-Fault insurance coverage was intended to include motorcycles so that a person who was injured while driving a motorcycle in the District of Columbia would be eligible to recover PIP benefits only if the victim had previously purchased such coverage. We hold, based on the stated purpose of the No-Fault Act and a 1986 amendment which eliminated the exclusion of motorcycles in the definition of "motor vehicle," that the Council of the District of Columbia did not intend when it enacted the No-Fault Act in 1982 for motorcycles to be covered by the mandated insurance provisions, and hence that appellant is entitled to recover PIP benefits.⁴

A.

D.C.Code § 35-2101(b) states that the purpose of the No-Fault Act is "to provide adequate protection for victims who are injured in the District or who are injured while riding in motor vehicles registered or operated in the District" (emphasis added). The No-Fault Act broadly defines a victim as an "individual who sustains injury as a result of an accident." D.C.Code § 35-2102(34). In support of the enactment of the No-Fault Act, the D.C. Council found that motorists, motor vehicle passengers, and pedestrians in the District were inadequately protected under the tort law system from the consequences of motor vehicle accidents, and that they were unlikely to recover the amount of actual losses because of limitations on the amount of PIP benefits that could be recovered and the "time-consuming and expensive" tort liability system. D.C.Code § 35-2101(a). The Council also found that far greater protection to victims of motor vehicle accidents was available at lower prices, and that the purchase of this better insurance protection should be compulsory. See id.

To achieve its purpose, the No-Fault Act provides for quick recovery of basic compensation by eliminating the need for tort litigation. See Nasaka v. Data Access Sys., 602 F.Supp. 761, 763 (D.D.C.1985). Section 35-2103(b) requires every non-resident owner of a motor vehicle operated in the District to maintain "insurance for payment of the benefits required by this chapter for personal injury protection, property damage liability protection, and uninsured motorist protection." PIP insurance covers compensable loss up to certain monetary limits set in the No-Fault Act regardless of negligence or fault. See D.C.Code § 35-2104; Nasaka, supra, 602 F.Supp. at 762. In exchange for this certain, but limited, compensation, the No-Fault Act eliminated most civil claims for damages based upon tort liability. See D.C.Code § 35-2105; Johnson v. Collins, 516 A.2d 196, 198 (D.C.1986); Nasaka, supra, 602 F.Supp. at 763 (quid pro quo of "automatic" personal injury protection). If PIP benefits are available to a person under the No-Fault Act, and none of the exceptions in § 35-2105(b) apply, then suit is barred under § 35-2105(a) and recovery is limited to PIP benefits.⁵ See Weeks v. Wimple, 669 F.Supp. 499, 500 (D.D.C.1987).

Dairyland contends⁶ that appellant is ineligible for PIP benefits because he failed to maintain for his motorcycle the insurance required by section 35-2106(e)(1).⁷ Appellant responds that section 35-2106(e)(1) is inapplicable because motorcycles were excluded by section 35-2102(17) from the definition of a "motor vehicle" for which the No-Fault Act required insurance. Since the mandatory insurance provisions refer exclusively to motor vehicles, appellant contends that the D.C. Council must have intended to exempt motorcycles from these provisions. He further contends that injured motorcyclists are to be treated like pedestrians or any other uninsured victim under the No-Fault Act, and that he is, therefore, entitled to receive PIP benefits from either Cumis or Dairyland.

The No-Fault Act enacted in 1982 was the result of a lengthy process in which several versions of no-fault insurance were considered by the D.C. Council. Two earlier versions of the bill suggest that the Council did not intend to require insurers to offer mandatory uninsured or optional underinsured motorist coverage to people operating motorcycles, mopeds, or motorized bicycles. Thus, Bill 4-140, the "Compulsory Motor Vehicle Insurance Act of 1981," required "all automobile liability or motor vehicle liability insurance to include uninsured motorist coverage except while the insured was operating a motorcycle, moped, or motorized bicycle."⁸ Commenting on this bill, the Chief of the Legislation and Opinions Section of the Office of the Corporation Counsel recommended that a sentence be added to the definition of "motor vehicle" to exclude motorcycles and motorized bicycles, "since this appears to be the intent of the bill as reflected in section 4(a)."⁹ later version of the bill required each insurance policy to offer optional underinsured motor vehicle coverage, "except for the operation of motorcycles, mopeds, or motorized bicycles."¹⁰ The bill passed by the D.C. Council revised the entire section on required and optional insurance,¹¹ and excluded motorcycles from the definition of "motor vehicle." Earlier versions of the legislation suggest that the Council contemplated excluding motorcycles and motorized bicycles from some of the insurance requirements under consideration, and lend support to appellant's contention that in 1982 the Council intended to exclude motorcycles from the mandatory insurance requirements for motor vehicles.

In 1986 the Council amended the definition of "motor vehicle" so that it no longer excluded motorcycles. See D.C.Code § 35-2102(17) (1988 Repl.). The legislative history stated that the amendment was designed to "eliminate the exclusion of motorcycles under the definition motor vehicle, so that motorcycles are now required to carry the coverages under section 7 of the act."¹² While the action of a later Council usually does not provide definitive evidence of the intent underlying the action of a former Council, see McIntosh v. Washington, 395 A.2d 744, 750 n. 12 (D.C.1978); see also District of Columbia v. Schwerman Trucking Co., 327 A.2d 818, 823 (D.C. 1974), the fact that the 1986 amendment addressed the same subject, and the rationale for the amendment, lends some support for our view that in 1982 the Council intended to exclude motorcycles from the mandatory insurance provisions. See McIntosh, supra, 395 A.2d at 750 n. 12.

Our reading of the legislative history of the No-Fault Act and the 1986 amendment is consistent with the policy in other jurisdictions which exclude motorcycles from mandatory no-fault insurance requirements, either by specific reference or by excluding vehicles with less than four wheels from the definition of "motor vehicle" in their statutes.¹³ The basis for the exclusion in these jurisdictions is that the cost of requiring mandatory coverage, and particularly PIP benefits, for motorcycles Is prohibitive;¹⁴ as one court noted, studies show that motorcyclists, while rarely...