Milbank Ins. Co. v. Henry

• Decision Date: 09 June 1989
• Docket Number: No. 86-489,86-489
• Citation: 232 Neb. 418,441 N.W.2d 143
• Parties: MILBANK INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee, v. Lila L. HENRY et al., Appellants.
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

Page 143

441 N.W.2d 143

232 Neb. 418

MILBANK INSURANCE COMPANY, a Foreign Corporation, Appellee, v. Lila L. HENRY et al., Appellants.

No. 86-489.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

June 9, 1989.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Insurance: Subrogation. A subrogation clause in an automobile liability insurance policy which provides that in the event the insurer makes a payment to the insured under the medical payments coverage of the policy, the insurer shall be subrogated to any cause of action which the insured may have to recover damages from another person, is valid and binding on the insured.

2. Insurance: Subrogation: Tort-feasors: Notice. When a tort-feasor or the tort-feasor's liability insurer, with notice of an insurer's subrogation claim, procures a general release by making a settlement with the insured, the release will not affect the insurer's right of subrogation.

Raymond J. Walowski and J. Patrick Green, Omaha, for appellant Henry.

Daniel P. Chesire and Thomas D. Wulff of Kennedy, Holland, DeLacy & Svoboda, Omaha, for appellants Ammoura and Farmers Ins. Exchange.

Alan M. Thelen of Breeling, Welling & Place, Omaha, for appellee.

HASTINGS, C.J., BOSLAUGH, WHITE, CAPORALE, SHANAHAN, GRANT, and FAHRNBRUCH, JJ.

BOSLAUGH, Justice.

The plaintiff, Milbank Insurance Company, commenced this action in the county court to recover $1,000 which it had paid to the defendant Lila L. Henry under the medical payments coverage of an automobile liability insurance policy which the plaintiff had issued. Henry had been injured in an automobile accident in which an automobile operated by the defendant Housam M. Ammoura had collided with the automobile insured by the plaintiff and operated by Henry. The defendant Farmers Insurance Exchange was the liability insurance carrier for Ammoura.

After the plaintiff had paid Henry, the plaintiff wrote to Farmers to notify it that the plaintiff was subrogated to Henry's cause of action against Ammoura. Farmers wrote back to the plaintiff stating that it did not honor subrogation claims for medical payments coverage in Nebraska. Later, Farmers entered into a settlement with Henry in the amount of $12,000 and took a general release from Henry of all claims arising out of the accident. The plaintiff then commenced this action against Henry, Ammoura, and Farmers to recover the $1,000 that it had paid to Henry.

The county court found in favor of the plaintiff and against all defendants. Upon appeal to the district court, the judgment was affirmed. The defendants have now appealed to this court.

The case was tried upon a stipulation of facts, and the issues are purely questions of law.

The policy which the plaintiff had issued and which insured the automobile that Henry was operating at the time of the accident contained the following provision:

5. OUR RIGHT TO RECOVER PAYMENT

A. If we make a payment under this policy and the person to or for whom payment was made has a right to recover damages from another we shall be subrogated to that right. That person shall do whatever is necessary to enable us to exercise our rights and shall do nothing after loss to prejudice them.

B. If we make a payment under this policy and the person, to or for whom payment is made recovers damages from another, that person shall hold in trust for us the proceeds of the recovery and shall reimburse us to the extent of our payment.

Henry contends that the subrogation clause in the policy issued by the plaintiff is not valid, at least as to payments made under medical payments coverage, for several reasons. Henry argues that it conflicts with the collateral source rule and the common-law rule against the assignment of personal injury claims. Henry concedes that there is a division of authority on the question and that it is probable that the majority of cases hold such clauses to be valid.

We think the better reasoned cases support the rule that such a subrogation clause is valid. Representative of such cases is Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Vaccari, 310 Minn. 97, 99-101, 245 N.W.2d 844, 845-46 (1976), in which the court held:

The insurance policy issued by Travelers provided that Travelers would be subrogated to the rights of any person to the extent of any medical payments made to that person. In National Union Fire Ins. Co. v. Grimes, 278 Minn. 45, 153 N.W.2d 152 (1967), we upheld the validity of this type of subrogation clause as between the insurer and its insured, but specifically reserved ruling on the validity of the subrogation clause as against a third-party tortfeasor. We stated (278 Minn. [at] 49, 153 N.W.2d [at] 155):

"If the present action were one in which plaintiff was attempting to assert a claim for the medical expenses paid by it against the tortfeasor who caused the injuries, the rules forbidding the assignment of claims for personal injuries might be applicable. But this is not such a situation and we need not anticipate it."

We now hold that a subrogation clause of this kind which gives an insurer a right to subrogation against a third-party tortfeasor for medical payments actually made is a valid and enforceable contractual provision. It is well established as a principle of equity that upon payment of a loss an insurer is entitled to pursue those rights which the insured may have against a third party whose negligence or wrongful act caused the loss. Great Northern Oil Co. v. St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 291 Minn. 97, 189 N.W.2d 404 (1971). Applying this principle, the majority of jurisdictions have upheld the validity of insurance provisions which confer on an insurer a right of subrogation against third-party tortfeasors for medical payments actually made to its insured.

We are not persuaded by Dairyland's argument that this type of subrogation clause constitutes an assignment of a cause of action for personal injuries. An insurer's subrogation to its insured's right of recovery against a tortfeasor is distinct from an assignment of a personal action. Subrogation involves the substitution of an insurer by operation of law to the rights of the insured because of the insurer's pre-existing duty to pay the insured for the loss. In contrast, an assignment involves a transfer of a legal claim from an injured party to a volunteer who was under no pre-existing duty to compensate the injured party. Moreover, under subrogation an insurer's recovery is limited to the amount paid to the insured, whereas there is no such limitation on an assignee's recovery. Thus, subrogation simply does not create the same risk of maintenance or champerty as does assignment. See, DeCespedes v. Prudence Mutual Cas. Co., 193 So.2d 224 (Fla.App.1966).

In Alabama Farm Bureau Mut. Cas. Ins. Co. v. Anderson, 48 Ala.App. 172, 175, 263 So.2d 149, 152 (1972), the court noted that Illinois, Minnesota, New York, and Washington have held that "[m]edical payments subrogation merely impresses an equitable lien in favor of the insurer upon the proceeds of any recovery obtained by the insured from the tort-feasor to the extent of its payment." Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have held that the right to medical pay subrogation is "based on contract; is not unfair or overreaching; and is accompanied by an appropriately reduced premium." Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia hold that a subrogation provision such as the one involved in this case "merely provides for conventional subrogation and does not constitute an assignment."

We conclude that the policy provision was valid and binding on Henry.

The defendants Ammoura and Farmers make much the same arguments. Further, they argue that since the release bars any action by Henry, the plaintiff cannot recover against them. The defendants overlook the fact that the settlement with Henry was made with notice of the plaintiff's subrogation claim.

When the plaintiff paid the medical payments claim to Henry, the plaintiff acquired an interest in Henry's claim against Ammoura under the subrogation clause in its policy. Since Farmers had notice of the plaintiff's subrogation claim, it could not destroy the plaintiff's interest by a settlement with Henry alone. As we said in Beeder v. Fleer, 211 Neb. 294, 299, 318 N.W.2d 708, 711 (1982), a suit involving subrogation resulting from payment of a claim under collision coverage,

After receiving notice from USAA that the appellee's claim for property damage to her automobile had been assigned or subrogated to it, Allstate was under a legal obligation to make payment to USAA and not to the appellee even though the action was pending in the name of the appellee, for the reason that USAA was then the real owner of the property damage claim for damages to appellee's automobile by reason of its subrogated interest.

In Omaha & R.V.R. Co. v. Granite State Fire Ins. Co., 53 Neb. 514, 73 N.W.950 (1898), the insurance company paid $1,000 on a fire loss and took a partial assignment of the owner's cause of action against the railroad. The property owner, Erickson, then sued the railroad for the balance of his loss. After the railroad had settled that suit, the insurance company sued for the amount of the loss it had paid to the property owner, and recovered. In affirming the judgment the court said:

The railroad's answer in the Erickson suit was therefore good, and stated a valid defense; its abandonment of the defense and stipulation for judgment against it amounted then to a waiver of a good defense and a voluntary payment. Knowing, as it then knew, of the rights of the insurance company, it is not protected, by that voluntary payment of Erickson's claim, against a valid claim of the insurance company not included in that settlement. Its action was equivalent to express consent to a splitting of the cause of action, and it can claim no estoppel against the insurance company because it acted with full knowledge of its rights and of...