Boullt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.

752 So. 2d 739, 1999 La. LEXIS 2610, 1999 WL 955494
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 19, 1999
Docket99-C-0942
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 752 So. 2d 739 (Boullt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boullt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 752 So. 2d 739, 1999 La. LEXIS 2610, 1999 WL 955494 (La. 1999).

Opinion

752 So.2d 739 (1999)

Billy BOULLT and Judy Boullt
v.
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE CO.

No. 99-C-0942.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

October 19, 1999.
Rehearing Denied November 19, 1999.

*740 Philip Thomas Deal, Deal & Cook, Monroe, Counsel for Applicant.

Anthony J. Bruscato, Juan Antonio Tramontana, Patrick Scott Wolleson, Bruscato, Tramontana & Wolleson, Monroe, Counsel for Respondent.

KNOLL, Justice.[*]

This writ concerns divorced parents with separately owned insurance policies seeking damages under their respective policies for the wrongful death of their daughter who was a guest passenger in a nonowned automobile. The issue is whether the parents' individual claims for the wrongful death of their child violates Louisiana's anti-stacking law. We conclude that each parent is seeking damages for an independent cause of action under a single policy for which he or she is the named insured and is not stacking one coverage on top of another. Thus, under the unique facts of this case, Louisiana's anti-stacking law does not bar recovery to the parents' individual claims.

FACTS

On November 6, 1993, Andrea Boullt ("Andrea") suffered fatal injuries in a one-car accident while a guest-passenger in a vehicle owned by Louis Costanza. It is undisputed that the sole cause of the accident was the negligence of the host driver. At the time of Andrea's death, her parents, Billy and Judy Boullt (the "Boullts"), were divorced, maintained separate households, and enjoyed joint custody of their daughter. It was stipulated that Andrea was considered a resident of each of the Boullts' separate households for coverage purposes at the time of her death. The Boullts settled Andrea's survival action with the host driver's insurer for policy limits of $100,000.

The Boullts each purchased separate automobile insurance policies from State Farm on their own vehicles.[1] Each was a named insured only under his or her respective policy. Each policy provided UM coverage to the insured with limits of $50,000 per accident. It was stipulated that each of the Boullts' wrongful death claims exceeded the limits of liability coverage paid from the host driver's policy and under the policies issued to the Boullts by State Farm. It was also stipulated that the Boullts were each seeking to satisfy their individual wrongful death claim by claiming a separate payment under his or her own UM policy. Notwithstanding, State Farm contended that the Boullts could recover only under one policy. State Farm tendered the limits of its UM policy issued solely to Billy Boullt by check made payable to Billy and Judy jointly and refused to pay the limits of Judy Boullt's UM policy, claiming that the anti-stacking statute precluded recovery under both policies, thus necessitating the Boullts bringing this wrongful death litigation for payment of their respective claims.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The trial court denied the Boullts' claims against State Farm and dismissed the suit with prejudice, citing Schwankhart v. Louisiana Dep't of Transp. & Dev., 94-0735 *741 (La.App. 4 Cir. 11/30/94), 646 So.2d 1242. The Second Circuit Court of Appeal reversed and held that the Boullts' claims against State Farm seeking recovery under their own individual UM policy did not violate Louisiana's anti-stacking statute because the Boullts were seeking separate recovery under his or her own separate UM policy for his or her own individual wrongful death damages. Boullt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 31,709 (La.App. 2 Cir. 3/1/99), 728 So.2d 1064, 1065. The court of appeal agreed with State Farm and recognized that had Andrea lived, as an "insured" under both her parents' policies, the anti-stacking statute would have limited her recovery to only one of her parents' UM policies. However, the appellate court reasoned that the wrongful death claims asserted by each of the Boullts for their own injuries were separate claims of damages sustained by each parent personally as a result of the loss of a child. The court also reasoned that, as it considered each parent an "insured" under the anti-stacking statute, allowing each to recover under their own policy did not violate the statute or its public policy. Id.

We granted State Farm's writ application to resolve a split among the circuits. Boullt v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 99-0942 (La.5/28/99), 743 So.2d 655. The Fourth Circuit in Schwankhart, 646 So.2d at 1244, held that divorced parents seeking recovery for individual wrongful death claims under his or her own policy were limited to one policy concluding that "[m]ultiple persons recovering for a wrongful death should be restricted to the same total recovery which would have been available to the injured person if he had survived." Likewise, the Third Circuit in Sheppard v. State Farm Ins. Co., 614 So.2d 208, 211 (La.App. 3 Cir.1993); Vincent v. State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co., 526 So.2d 818, 820 (La.App. 3 Cir.), on reh'g, 526 So.2d 818, 823-24, writ denied, 532 So.2d 150 (La.1988); and Salter v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 520 So.2d 877, 879 (La.App. 3 Cir.1987) has essentially held that Louisiana's anti-stacking statute restricts claimants for wrongful death damages to the full limits of UM liability coverage contained in one policy covering one vehicle.

State Farm argues that the court of appeal erred in concluding that the Boullts could each collect the policy limits for the wrongful death of Andrea under their own UM policy. State Farm reasons that under La. R.S. 22:1406(D)(1)(c), had Andrea lived, she, as an occupant of a non-owned vehicle and a resident of each of the Boullts' households, could have recovered first from the host driver's liability policy and then from only one of her parents' UM policies. State Farm contends that the court of appeal's error resulted from its erroneous assessment that each parent was considered as the "insured" under La. R.S. 22:1406(D)(1)(c) and that clearly it is only the person who is injured or killed, i.e., Andrea, who is the "insured." For authority, State Farm cites Schwankhart, 646 So.2d at 1242; Vincent, 526 So.2d at 818; Salter, 520 So.2d at 877; and the 1986 first edition of the McKENZIE & JOHNSON, LOUISIANA CIVIL LAW TREATISE ON INSURANCE § 123 ("[M]ultiple persons recovering for a wrongful death should be restricted to the same total recovery which would have been available to the injured person if he had survived.").[2]

The Boullts counter that La. R.S. 22:1406(D)(1)(c) is not applicable arguing that no stacking of policies has taken place because they are divorced parents, have separate UM policies insuring separate vehicles, have separate and independent causes of action, and are seeking separate recovery of their own individual damages arising from the wrongful death of Andrea. That is, each parent is asserting an independent *742 cause of action for his or her own damages under a single policy and not attempting to stack recovery under two policies. The Boullts point out that, at the time of the accident, neither of the two was an insured under the other's policy and could not assert a claim under the other's policy. Thus, because the policies and claims are separate and distinct, Billy is entitled to seek satisfaction of his wrongful death claim from his policy and Judy is entitled to seek satisfaction of her wrongful death claim from her policy.

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Bluebook (online)
752 So. 2d 739, 1999 La. LEXIS 2610, 1999 WL 955494, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boullt-v-state-farm-mut-auto-ins-co-la-1999.