Doyle v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 23 December 1999
• Docket Number: (SC 15939)
• Citation: 743 A.2d 156,252 Conn. 79
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: SEAN DOYLE v. METROPOLITAN PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY

252 Conn. 79

743 A.2d 156

SEAN DOYLE v. METROPOLITAN PROPERTY AND CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY

(SC 15939)

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued December 3, 1998.

Officially released December 23, 1999¹.

Borden, Berdon, Norcott, Katz, Palmer, McDonald and Peters, Js.² Bernard Pellegrino, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Karen T. Gerber, with whom was Frederick L. Murolo, for the appellee (defendant).

Opinion

BORDEN, J.

The sole question raised by this certified appeal is whether a tortfeasor's vehicle is underinsured within the meaning of General Statutes § 38a-336³ if the tortfeasor has a $100,000 single limit liability policy and the plaintiff has a $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident split limit uninsured motorist policy. The trial court concluded that, in such circumstances, the tortfeasor is not underinsured and, on appeal, the Appellate Court agreed. We affirm the judgment of the Appellate Court.

The facts relevant to this appeal are undisputed. The plaintiff, Sean Doyle, was operating his vehicle on Academy Road in Cheshire when he was struck head-on by an automobile owned and operated by Angela Catone (tortfeasor). The plaintiff, who was alone in his vehicle, suffered personal injuries and other damages. A passenger in the tortfeasor's automobile was killed in the accident.

At the time of the accident, the tortfeasor had a $100,000 single limit liability policy issued by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. The plaintiff was paid $33,382 under that policy as compensation for his injuries and property damage. The liability coverage of the tortfeasor's vehicle was exhausted by payments made to the plaintiff and to the estate of the deceased passenger of the tortfeasor's vehicle.

The plaintiff was insured under a policy issued by the defendant, Metropolitan Property and Casualty Insurance Company, with uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage limits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident.⁴ The plaintiff brought this action against the defendant seeking underinsured motorist benefits under that policy.

Both parties moved for summary judgment. The plaintiff claimed that, because more than one claimant had sought recovery under the tortfeasor's liability policy, the determination of whether the tortfeasor was underinsured within the meaning of § 38a-336 (e); see footnote 2 of this opinion; must be made by comparing the tortfeasor's policy limit of $100,000 with the $300,000 per accident limit of the plaintiffs uninsured motorist policy. Under the interpretation urged by the plaintiff, he was entitled to uninsured motorist benefits because the applicable limits of the tortfeasor's policy are less than the applicable limits of his uninsured motorist policy. The defendant claimed, to the contrary, that the proper comparison is between the tortfeasor's policy limit of $100,000 and the $100,000 per person limit of the plaintiffs uninsured motorist policy. Under that interpretation, the tortfeasor was not underinsured, and hence the plaintiff was not entitled to recover under his uninsured motorist policy because the applicable limits of the tortfeasor's policy are equal to, not less than, the applicable limits of his uninsured motorist policy.

The trial court rendered summary judgment for the defendant, concluding that it was bound by D'Arcangelo v. Hartford Casualty Ins. Co., 44 Conn. App. 377, 379-80, 689 A.2d 502, cert. denied, 240 Conn. 925, 692 A.2d 818 (1997), wherein the Appellate Court had held that "[w]here the [claimant's uninsured motorist] policy is a split limit policy, `the total of the per person limit is the amount of liability insurance available to the claimant....'"⁵ The plaintiff then appealed to the Appellate Court, which summarily affirmed the judgment of the trial court. Doyle v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Ins. Co., 48 Conn. App. 902, 710 A.2d 193 (1998). We granted the plaintiffs petition for certification limited to the following issue: "Did the Appellate Court properly conclude that the tortfeasor's vehicle is not underinsured when the tortfeasor has a $100,000 liability policy and the plaintiff has a $100,000/$300,000 split limit uninsured motorist policy in circumstances where, due to the existence of multiple claimants, the plaintiff's recovery under the tortfeasor's policy is less than $100,000?" Doyle v. Metropolitan Property & Casualty Ins. Co., 245 Conn. 903, 719 A.2d 1163 (1998).

Whether the tortfeasor's vehicle is underinsured in the present case is a matter of statutory interpretation. "Statutory interpretation is a matter of law over which this court's review is plenary.... In construing statutes, [o]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature.... In seeking to discern that intent, we look to the words of the statute itself, to the legislative history and circumstances surrounding its enactment, to the legislative policy it was designed to implement, and to its relationship to existing legislation and common law principles governing the same general subject matter." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) Shawmut Mortgage Co. v. Wheat, 245 Conn. 744, 748-49, 717 A.2d 664 (1998).

"[B]roadly stated ... the purpose of underinsured motorist coverage is to protect the named insured and other additional insureds from suffering an inadequately compensated injury caused by an accident with an inadequately insured automobile." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Florestal v. Government Employees Ins. Co., 236 Conn. 299, 305, 673 A.2d 474 (1996). "Application of § 38a-336 involves two separate inquiries. First, it must be determined whether the tortfeasor's vehicle is an `underinsured vehicle' within the meaning of the statute. Second, after this determination is made and underinsured motorist coverage is found to be applicable, the finder of fact calculates the amount of the award to be paid the victim." Covenant Ins. Co. v. Coon, 220 Conn. 30, 33, 594 A.2d 977 (1991). Because we conclude that the tortfeasor's vehicle is not underinsured within the meaning of § 38a-336, we address only the first of these two inquiries in the present case.

"[I]n determining whether a motor vehicle is underinsured for purposes of [§ 38a-336], the aggregate of the limits of all such bonds and policies on the tortfeasor's motor vehicle is compared against the amount of uninsured motorist coverage of the insured.... If the aggregate is less than the limits of liability in the uninsured motorist portion of the insured's policy, then the underinsurance coverage is activated." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Gould, 213 Conn. 625, 630, 569 A.2d 1105 (1990), overruled in part on other grounds, Covenant Ins. Co. v. Coon, supra, 220 Conn. 37. "Courts construing statutes like [§ 38a-336] that compare uninsured motorist coverage limits with tortfeasor liability limits have generally held that the legislative objective was simply to give an insured who is injured in an accident the same resource he would have had if the tortfeasor had carried liability insurance equal to the amount of the insured's uninsured motorist coverage." American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Gould, supra, 632.

This court has not considered specifically the question of whether a tortfeasor's vehicle is underinsured within the meaning of § 38a-336 if the tortfeasor's single limit liability coverage is less than the per accident limit of the plaintiff's split limit uninsured motorist coverage. We conclude, however, that this case is controlled by the consistent reasoning of this court in American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Gould, supra, 213 Conn. 625, and Florestal v. Government Employees Ins. Co., supra, 236 Conn. 299, which compels the conclusion that the judgment of the Appellate Court should be affirmed.

In American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Gould, supra, 213 Conn. 628, the amount of the tortfeasor's liability insurance was $140,000, and the amount of the underinsured motorist insurance coverage provided by the plaintiffs policy was $80,000. We held that the tortfeasor's vehicle was not an underinsured motor vehicle because, and only because, of the simple comparison between the two figures: the amount of the liability insurance coverage available to the plaintiff, namely, $140,000, was not less than the amount of the underinsured motorist insurance coverage provided by the plaintiffs policy, namely, $80,000. Id., 633.

In Covenant Ins. Co. v. Coon, supra, 220 Conn. 31-32, the amount of the tortfeasor's liability insurance was $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. The underinsured motorist insurance policy at issue provided $50,000 of coverage. We held that the tortfeasor's vehicle was an underinsured motor vehicle because, and only because, of the simple comparison between the two figures: the amount of the liability insurance coverage available to the plaintiff, namely, $25,000, was less than the underinsured motorist insurance provided by the plaintiffs policy, namely, $50,000. Id., 34. Indeed, we reinforced that reasoning as follows: "We have ... previously concluded that in determining the tortfeasor's liability limit for the purposes of the § 38a-336 (d) comparison, we must examine the amount `of liability insurance [that is] available to [the victims].' ... American Motorists Ins. Co. v. Gould, [supra, 213 Conn. 633]. Here, even though [the tortfeasor] had $50,000 per accident liability limits, [the plaintiff] never had more than $25,000 of this coverage potentially available to her." (Emphasis in original.) Covenant Ins. Co. v. Coon, supra, 34. We further reinforced that concept by noting that, although Gould "involved a different factual context, in that opinion we compared the uninsured motorist limit against the amount of liability insurance potentially available to the victims." Id., 34 n.5. Thereafter, in Florestal v. Government Employees Ins. Co., supra, 236 Conn. 301,...