Robinson v. Gailno

• Decision Date: 06 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 17385.,17385.
• Citation: 880 A.2d 127,275 Conn. 290
• Parties: Jaime L. ROBINSON v. Ronald R. GAILNO, Jr.
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court

880 A.2d 127

275 Conn. 290

Jaime L. ROBINSON v. Ronald R. GAILNO, Jr.

No. 17385.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 16, 2005.

Decided September 6, 2005.

J. Xavier Pryor, for the appellant (plaintiff).

Kenneth H. Naide, Boston, MA, for the appellee (defendant).

Charles W. Pieterse, Greenwich, Joseph C. Tanski, pro hac vice, and Gordon M. Jones III, pro hac vice, Boston, MA, filed a brief for the Connecticut Insurance Guaranty Association as amicus curiae.

SULLIVAN, C.J., and NORCOTT, PALMER, VERTEFEUILLE and ZARELLA, Js.

NORCOTT, J.

The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether the trial court properly concluded that General Statutes § 38a-845 (1)¹ requires a claimant to obtain the full amount of coverage available under the limits of her own uninsured motorist insurance policy before she may recover damages, either personally or through the Connecticut Insurance Guaranty Association (association), from a tortfeasor who is uninsured as a result of his insurer's insolvency. The plaintiff, Jaime L. Robinson, brought this action against the defendant, Ronald R. Garno, Jr.,² seeking damages for personal injuries sustained as a result of an automobile accident that was caused by the defendant's alleged negligence and recklessness. The plaintiff appeals³ from the judgment rendered after the trial court granted the defendant's motion for a directed verdict, and subsequently denied the plaintiff's motions to set aside the verdict and for a new trial. We conclude that a claimant who has unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the full coverage limits of her own uninsured motorist policy has satisfied § 38a-845 (1) and, therefore, may bring an action to collect from the tortfeasor, either personally or through the association, with any recovery from either of those sources reduced by the full amount of those policy limits. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand the case for a new trial.

The record reveals the following relevant facts and procedural history. In March, 2001, the plaintiff was injured in an automobile accident with the defendant.⁴ Thereafter, the plaintiff brought this action to recover both economic and noneconomic damages, claiming that she was entitled, inter alia, to compensatory and double and treble damages pursuant to General Statutes § 14-295,⁵ for injuries caused by the defendant's allegedly negligent and reckless conduct. At the time of the accident, the defendant had an automobile liability insurance policy from Reliance Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (Reliance), with bodily injury coverage in the amount of $20,000. Reliance, however, became insolvent prior to the commencement of this action, and the association assumed the defense pursuant to the Connecticut Insurance Guaranty Association Act (guaranty act), General Statutes § 38a-836 et seq. The plaintiff then filed a claim with her automobile insurer, the United States Automobile Association (USAA), because she had uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage with policy limits of $100,000 per person. The plaintiff then filed a civil action against USAA to recover that sum, which she subsequently withdrew after settling her coverage claim against USAA for $80,000.⁶

In his answer, the defendant raised multiple special defenses, including that: (1) he is entitled to an automatic reduction of any adverse judgment by the amount paid to the plaintiff by any solvent insurer, the association, or other source relating to the plaintiff's claim; and (2) pursuant to § 38a-845 (1), the defendant is not liable to pay an adverse judgment because the plaintiff failed to exhaust all solvent insurance, governmental insurance or guaranty programs.⁷ At trial, after the plaintiff presented her case-in-chief, the defendant moved for a directed verdict. The trial court granted that motion, concluding orally that, although directed verdicts are "disfavored," the plaintiff had failed to exhaust her rights under her uninsured motorist insurance policy with USAA because she had settled for $80,000, when the policy limit was $100,000. The trial court relied on an affidavit from Lawrence Connelli, an attorney for USAA, stating that the settlement was based on that company's valuation of the case, with no consideration given to any potential offsetting sums from the association or other sources. The trial court also cited the exhaustion language from the statute, as well as Doucette v. Pomes, 247 Conn. 442, 724 A.2d 481 (1999), and Harbor Ins. Co. v. Connecticut Ins. Guaranty Assn., 711 F.Supp. 70 (D.Conn.1989), to support its conclusion. The trial court further concluded that, although the association "is not an actual party in this case . . . [t]he court finds also that if there was a judgment against the . . . defendant, [the association] would have to pay that amount just as any insurance company who is not a party and in a regular lawsuit, driver versus driver, the insurance company would have to pay. [The association] in this case bears the financial responsibility they have, the financial interest in this case and that they would be required to pay. And any judgment against the . . . defendant, they are standing in the shoes of his company Reliance which is insolvent and doesn't exist any more."⁸ Thereafter, the trial court rendered judgment for the defendant in accordance with the directed verdict,⁹ and this appeal followed.¹⁰ On appeal, the plaintiff raises a litany of claims that boil down to a single dispositive issue, namely, whether the plaintiff's settlement of her uninsured motorist claim for less than her policy limits, constitutes the required exhaustion of that insurance policy under § 38a-845 (1).¹¹ The plaintiff claims that the plain language of the statute does not require that she exhaust the policy limits in their entirety, but rather only her "rights" under the policy. The plaintiff further contends that her rights under that policy are defined by the uninsured and underinsured motorist statute, General Statutes § 38a-336 (b),¹² and that she, therefore, potentially may recover an additional $20,000 from the association because that statute permits her to recover the limit of her uninsured motorist policy, which is $100,000. The defendant, citing Carrier v. Hicks, 316 Or. 341, 851 P.2d 581 (1993), argues in response that the word "exhaust" requires the plaintiff to recover the entire $100,000 policy limit before she may recover any moneys either from the association or a person insured by the association pursuant to the guaranty act.¹³ The defendant also contends that his construction of § 38a-845 (1) is consistent both with the common usage of the word "exhaust," and the purpose of the guaranty act as a source of last resort for the payment of tort claims.

"The standards for appellate review of a directed verdict are well settled. Directed verdicts are not favored. . . . A trial court should direct a verdict only when a jury could not reasonably and legally have reached any other conclusion. . . . In reviewing the trial court's decision to direct a verdict in favor of a defendant we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. . . . Although it is the jury's right to draw logical deductions and make reasonable inferences from the facts proven . . . it may not resort to mere conjecture and speculation. . . . A directed verdict is justified if . . . the evidence is so weak that it would be proper for the court to set aside a verdict rendered for the other party." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Coughlin v. Anderson, 270 Conn. 487, 497-98, 853 A.2d 460 (2004). In the present case, the trial court's decision to grant the defendant's motion for a directed verdict was based on its interpretation of § 38a-845 (1). Accordingly, this presents an issue of statutory construction over which our review is plenary.

"The meaning of a statute shall, in the first instance, be ascertained from the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of such text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered." General Statutes § 1-2z.

We begin with the text of § 38a-845 (1), which provides: "Any person having a claim against an insurer under any provision in an insurance policy, other than a policy of an insolvent insurer, which is also a covered claim under sections 38a-836 to 38a-853, inclusive, shall exhaust first his rights under such policy. Any amount payable on a covered claim under said sections shall be reduced by the amount recoverable under the claimant's insurance policy or chapter 568." (Emphasis added.)

We begin with the common usage and ordinary meaning of the words of the statute that are at issue, namely, "exhaust" and "rights," which are "determined appropriately by review of [their] dictionary definition[s] . . . ." (Citations omitted.) Manifold v. Ragaglia, 272 Conn. 410, 421 n. 12, 862 A.2d 292 (2004). Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines "exhaust," in relevant part, as "to use up the whole supply or store of: expend or consume entirely . . . ." The otherwise plain meaning of the word "exhaust" is, however, rendered ambiguous by the use of the word "rights" with respect to the relevant insurance policy. Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines the word "right" in relevant part as "something to which one has a just claim: as . . . a power or privilege vested in a person by the law to demand action or forbearance at the hands of another . . . a claim recognized and delimited by law for the purpose of securing it . . . ." Although the plaintiff's uninsured motorist policy has a coverage limit of $100,000, she may not necessarily have, in all cases, a just claim to that full amount. Moreover, the statute is silent as to whether "exhaustion"...