Daigle's Estate, Matter of

• Decision Date: 21 September 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80SA424,80SA424
• Parties: In the Matter of the ESTATE OF Harry P. DAIGLE, Deceased.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 71

634 P.2d 71

In the Matter of the ESTATE OF Harry P. DAIGLE, Deceased.

No. 80SA424.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

Sept. 21, 1981.

Kenneth C. Groves, Denver, for Jo Ann M. Snyder, As Personal Representative of the Estate of Seymour Roderick Snyder, and Individually, and as Parent and Next Friend on Behalf of Richard Roderick Snyder, Lori Dianne Snyder, and Kathleen Carol Snyder.

DeMoulin, Anderson, Campbell & Laugesen, Laird Campbell, Denver, for Ranger Ins. Co.

Tilly & Graves, Laurent A. Bougie, Denver, for First Nat. Bank of Denver.

QUINN, Justice.

This appeal raises three separate issues of law stemming from a wrongful death claim filed by a surviving spouse, individually and as parental next friend of her three minor children, against a decedent's estate. ¹ The district court held that the nonclaim statute, section 15-12-803(2)(b), C.R.S. 1973, which bars any claim not filed against a decedent's estate within four months after it arises, was tolled by reason of the minority of the claiming children. The district court also rejected an insurance carrier's equal protection challenge to section 15-12-803(3)(b), C.R.S. 1973, which, up to the limits of liability insurance protecting a decedent's estate, excludes from the mandatory four month period for presenting claims against an estate "any proceeding to establish liability of the decedent or the personal representative for which he is protected by liability insurance." Finally, the court interpreted the liability insurance policy so as to limit the coverage to $100,000 for the surviving spouse's wrongful death claim, which also was filed after the expiration of the four month period for presenting claims against the estate.

We affirm those parts of the judgment relating to the constitutionality of section 15-12-803(3)(b) and the interpretation of the insurance policy. We reverse that part of the judgment which holds that the nonclaim statute was tolled by the minority of the children.

I.

The facts are undisputed. On March 10, 1978, Harry P. Daigle was operating an airplane in which Seymour R. Snyder was riding as a passenger. The plane crashed at the Arapahoe County Airport, resulting in the deaths of Daigle and Snyder. The Daigle estate was opened on March 28, 1978, with the First National Bank of Denver (First National) being appointed personal representative. First National on that date caused a notice to creditors to be published which fixed August 7, 1978, as the last day for filing claims against the estate. ² On September 7, 1978, the wife of Seymour Snyder, Jo Ann M. Snyder, on behalf of herself and her three minor children, then 11, 13, and 14 years old, filed a claim against the Daigle estate in the amount of $2,500,000 for the wrongful death of her husband and father of the three children. ³

On September 28, 1978, First National disallowed the claim on the ground that, not having been filed prior to the last day fixed in the notice to creditors, it was barred by the nonclaim statute. Mrs. Snyder then petitioned the court for allowance of the claim, ⁴ contending that, as to the children's claim for wrongful death, the bar of the nonclaim statute was tolled by their minority. ⁵

Mrs. Snyder also asserted that because of liability insurance covering the Daigle estate for the airplane crash, section 15-12-803(3)(b), C.R.S. 1973, excepted her own claim from the nonclaim bar up to the limits of the insurance. First National conceded the applicability of the insurance exception to the wrongful death claim but Ranger Insurance Company (Ranger), the insurer under the liability policy covering the Daigle estate, claimed the insurance exception violated equal protection of the laws.

Ranger also asserted that the insurance policy, as modified by endorsement, limited Ranger's liability for the wrongful death claim to $100,000. The policy provided liability insurance for those coverages purchased by a specific premium payment as indicated in the declarations. A premium was paid only for Coverage D, a single limit bodily injury and property damage liability for a one year period commencing June 16, 1977. The insuring agreement for Coverage D was as follows:

"Coverage D Single Limit Bodily Injury (including or excluding passengers) and Property Damage Liability. To pay on behalf of the Insured all sums which the Insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death at any time resulting therefrom, sustained by any person, excluding passengers as defined herein, unless the Declarations describe Coverage D as 'Including Passengers,' and for damages because of injury to or destruction of property, including the loss of use thereof, caused by an occurrence and arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the aircraft."

The policy defined a passenger to include any person while in, on, or entering the aircraft for the purpose of riding or flying therein. For purposes of Coverage D an insured included "any person while using or riding in the aircraft ... provided the actual use is with the permission of the Named Insured." Coverage D provided for a liability limit of $1,000,000 per occurrence for bodily injury and property damage liability including passengers. An occurrence was defined as an accident resulting in injury during the policy period. There was an endorsement to the policy which became effective with the issuance of the policy on June 16, 1977. The endorsement stated:

"Under Coverage D it is agreed that the Company's limit of liability as respects bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death at any time resulting therefrom, sustained by passengers, shall be subject to a maximum of $100,000 each person, $400,000 each occurrence."

The parties agreed that the determination of legal issues raised by Mrs. Snyder's petition for allowance was crucial to a wrongful death suit commenced by her on November 9, 1978, in a separate action in the district court. ⁶ In that lawsuit Mrs. Snyder sued the Daigle estate in her capacity as surviving spouse and as parental next friend of her three children. The court concluded that the nonclaim statute was tolled by the minority of the Snyder children; it also upheld the constitutionality of section 15-12-803(3)(b); and it construed the Ranger policy as limiting the coverage to $100,000. All parties have appealed those aspects of the court's judgment which adversely affect their claim or defense.

We first will address First National's contention that the nonclaim statute is not tolled by the minority of the Snyder children, next Ranger's assertion that the exception to the nonclaim statute violates equal protection of the laws, and last Mrs. Snyder's argument that the Ranger insurance policy does not limit the wrongful death claim to $100,000.

II.

First National contends that, with respect to the Snyder children's wrongful death claim against the Daigle estate, section 15-12-803(2)(b) of the nonclaim statute was not tolled by reason of the children's minority. Resolution of this issue requires a determination of legislative intent from competing statutory schemes.

On the one hand, the purpose of the Colorado Probate Code is "(t)o promote a speedy and efficient system for settling the estate of the decedent and making distribution to his successors." Section 15-10-102(2)(c), C.R.S. 1973. Section 15-12-803(2) effectuates this purpose by providing:

"All claims against a decedent's estate which arise at or after the death of the decedent including claims of the state and any subdivision thereof, whether due or to become due, absolute or contingent, liquidated or unliquidated, founded on contract, tort, or other legal basis, are barred against the estate, the personal representative, and the heirs and devisees of the decedent, unless presented as follows:

(a) A claim based on a contract with the personal representative, within four months after performance by the personal representative is due;

(b) Any other claim, within four months after it arises."

Section 13-81-103(1), C.R.S. 1973, on the other hand, creates what is the equivalent of a statutory toll to applicable statutes of limitations for persons under disability, such as minors, at the time a right of action accrues. Sommermeyer v. Price, 198 Colo. 548, 603 P.2d 135 (1979); see also McKinney v. Armco Recreational Products, Inc., 419 F.Supp. 464 (D.Colo.1976); Antonopoulos v. Telluride, 187 Colo. 392, 532 P.2d 346 (1975). Upon termination of the disability, section 13-81-103(1)(c) allows "such person ... to take action within the period fixed by the applicable statute of limitations, or within two years after the removal of the disability, whichever period expires the later." ⁷

In Estate of Randall v. Colorado State Hospital, 166 Colo. 1, 441 P.2d 153 (1968), this court considered whether the former nonclaim statute, C.R.S. 1963, 153-12-12(1), constituted a jurisdictional bar to a late claim filed by the Colorado State Hospital against a decedent's estate for care and maintenance of the decedent's incompetent minor child. In holding the state's claim barred, the court distinguished a nonclaim statute from a statute of limitations:

"A nonclaim statute operates to deprive a court of jurisdiction. The personal representative of an estate can neither waive it nor toll it .... A nonclaim statute imposes a condition precedent to the enforcement of a right of action; that is to say, the claim must be presented within the time set in the notice to creditors or be barred. A statute of limitations, on the other hand, does not bar the right of action but only the remedy .... Such a statute may be tolled. Such a statute is a defense which is waived if not affirmatively pleaded." 166 Colo. at 6-7, 441 P.2d at 155.

This distinction was reaffirmed in Sommermeyer v. Price, supra, 198 Colo. at ---, 603 P.2d at 138, where the court stated:

"We interpret the language of ...