Hastings v. Thurston

• Decision Date: 21 April 1966
• Docket Number: No. 8710,8710
• Citation: 100 Ariz. 302,413 P.2d 767
• Parties: Dewey Jack HASTINGS, Supervisor, Financial Responsibility Branch of Motor Vehicle Division, Arizona State Highway Department, Petitioner, v. Edwin THURSTON, Judge, Maricopa County Superior Court, Respondent.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

Page 767

413 P.2d 767

100 Ariz. 302

Dewey Jack HASTINGS, Supervisor, Financial Responsibility Branch of Motor Vehicle Division, Arizona State Highway Department, Petitioner, v. Edwin THURSTON, Judge, Maricopa County Superior Court, Respondent.

No. 8710.

Supreme Court of Arizona, In Banc.

April 21, 1966.

Darrell F. Smith, Atty. Gen., Peter C. Gulatto, Asst. Atty. Gen., for petitioner.

Beer & Kalyna, by Olgerd W. Kalyna, Phoenix, for respondent and real parties in interest.

Samuel Langerman, Phoenix, for American Trial Lawyers Ass'n, amicus curiae.

UDALL, Justice.

This matter came before us by a petition for writ of prohibition or in the alternative for a writ of certiorari by Dewey Jack Hastings, Supervisor, Financial Responsibility Branch, Motor Vehicle Division, Arizona State Highway Department, hereinafter referred to as petitioner. The petition sought to restrain or prohibit the respondent, Honorable Edwin Thurston, Judge of the Superior Court of Maricopa County, from enforcing an order directing the petitioner to answer certain questions by counsel for the real parties in interest during a deposition and to further review the respondent's order directing petitioner to pay the sum of $300 for attorneys' fees and costs incurred in connection with petitioner's refusal to answer questions at the deposition. After a hearing, we issued an alternative, writ of certiorari. Article 6, § 5, Constitution of Arizona, (1960), A.R.S.

The facts upon which the writ was issued are: On May 25, 1965, Farmers Insurance Exchange filed a complaint for declaratory judgment alleging it had issued an automobile insurance policy to one William Deason and that the insured was involved in an automobile collision which resulted in an action to recover damages against the insured by Kinza O. Perry and George E. Robertson (the real parties in interest here). The complaint sought to have the Superior Court declare that Farmers' policy did not extend to this accident. Perry and Robertson, as defendants in this action, filed an answer and counterclaim, wherein they alleged the insurer is estopped to deny coverage because it failed to notify the Superintendent of the Motor Vehicle Division of this fact in accordance with A.R.S. § 28--1142, subsec. D.

On June 7, 1965, Perry and Robertson caused a subpoena duces tecum to be issued commanding petitioner to appear for the taking of his deposition and to bring with him and produce all records kept in the regular course of business regarding the collision between Robertson and Deason on October 27, 1964. Petitioner appeared at the designated time and place with the designated records in his possession, but on advice of counsel declined to produce the records because the records were confidential. Petitioner disclosed the identity of the persons involved in the accident and the fact that a report had been made, but refused to disclose the insurance information contained in the accident report, any action taken in notifying a named insurance company and the denial of coverage, if any, by the insurance company.

Upon petition by the real parties in interest, the respondent court ordered petitioner to appear and show cause why he should not be compelled to answer questions propounded to him at the deposition regarding the file and records in his possession and why he should not pay a reasonable sum as attorney's fees and costs. After a hearing, the respondent found the questions propounded were relevant and material and further that the answers to the propounded questions did not involve confidential information under the Arizona statutes pertaining to financial responsibility reports. Petitioner was, also, ordered to pay attorneys' fees and costs in the sum of $300 for refusal to answer questions at the deposition.

Petitioner contends that compliance with respondent's order would result in releasing confidential information, and interfere with enforcement of the financial responsibility statutes, and deny him of individual property without due process of law in violation of Art. 2, §§ 4, 8 and 13, Constitution of the State of Arizona, and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

This Court has determined the existence of insurance, the identity of the carrier, the type of coverage and the policy limits are not proper subjects for discovery in the ordinary civil action. Tom Reed Gold Mines Co. v. Morrison, 26 Ariz. 281, 224 P. 822; Di Pietruntonio v. Superior Court, 84 Ariz. 291, 327 P.2d 746.

We have also stated:

'The Financial Responsibility Act has for its principal purpose the protection of the public using the highways from financial hardship which may result from the use of automobiles by financially irresponsible persons.' Schecter v. Killingsworth, 93 Ariz. 273, 280, 380 P.2d 136, 140.

When a motor vehicle accident occurs in Arizona which results in bodily injury to or death of any person, or property damage of $100 or more, the driver involved must report the facts together with a statement naming his insurance company if he has one. A.R.S. §§ 28--667 through 28--669. An uninsured motorist must deposit security in a sum sufficient in the judgment of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles to satisfy any judgment or judgments for damages resulting from the accident as may be recovered against him. A.R.S. § 28--1142, as amended.

Where the accident report names an insurance company or surety company the following statute applies:

'28--1142 * * *

'D. Upon receipt of notice of the accident, the insurance company or surety company which issued the policy or bond shall furnish for filing with the superintendent a written notice that the policy or bond was not in effect at the time of the accident, if such was the case. If no such notice is received, the policy or bond shall be deemed to be in effect for the purposes of this chapter.'

The real parties in interest by deposition sought to discover whether petitioner notified any insurance company of the accident, and, if so, whether the insurance company replied pursuant to A.R.S. § 28--1142, subsec. D above.

Petitioner's refusal to reveal this information was based upon a privilege claimed under A.R.S. § 28--673 which provides:

'All accident reports made by persons involved in accidents or by garages shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting and shall be for the confidential use of the department or other state agencies having use for the records for accident prevention purposes, or for the administration of the laws of this state relating to the deposit of security and proof of financial responsibility by persons driving or the owners of motor vehicles, except that the department may disclose the identity of a person involved in an accident when his identity is not otherwise known or when the person denies his presence at the accident. No such report shall be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of an accident, except that the department shall furnish upon demand of any person who has, or claims to have, made such a report or upon demand of any court, a certificate showing that a specified accident report has or has not been made to the department solely to prove a compliance or a failure to comply with the requirement that a report be made to the department.'

The issue thus raised by the petitioner is whether the information sought is protected from disclosure by A.R.S. § 28--673 or by any other statute.

An examination of A.R.S. § 28--673 indicates that the accident report required to be made by the person involved in the accident is confidential, without prejudice to the individual so reporting, and cannot be used as evidence in any trial arising out of the accident. The reason for this privilege is that the state has an interest in encouraging the individual reporting to make a truthful, accurate, and complete report without fear that the report may be used against him in a lawsuit. Ehrhardt v. Ruan Transport Corp., 245 Iowa 193, 61 N.W.2d 696.

Very few courts have dealt with the precise issue raised by the parties in this matter. A similar question, however, was decided in Stephenson v. Millers Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 236 F.Supp. 420 (1964) where the United States District Court for the District of Arizona held that the director of the financial responsibility section of the Arizona Highway Department must provide a party injured in an automobile accident with records of notice, if any, given to an insurance company, date and manner of notice, identity of the company to which notice was given, the identity of the individual by whom such notice was given, and the reply, if any, by the insurance company. The federal court looked to the wording of the particular statutes involved in an attempt to discover the underlying purpose of the legislature. The facts of the Stephenson case are dissimilar, only in that in the former there was a judgment while in the case at bar, no judgment has been rendered against a party to the accident.

Most states have statutes requiring reports of traffic accidents and it is uniformly provided that the reports shall be inadmissible in evidence. There has been a judicial reluctance to extend the privilege beyond the express legislative mandate in this area of law. 8 Wigmore, Evidence § 2377 (McNaughton rev. 1961). An examination of the expressed statutory language of A.R.S. § 28--673 does not seem to suggest an intent to extent the privilege to the action taken by the insurance company.

The scope of A.R.S. § 28--673, as indicated by its language, applies to 'accident reports made by persons involved in accidents or by garages * * *.' Nowhere does the statute bring within its protection disclosure of the name of the insurance company by petitioner and the action the insurer took with respect to whether a policy was in effect at the time of the accident. Statutes are interpreted in light of their purpose if such purpose can be...