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

94 P.3d 326
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJuly 12, 2004
Docket51377-0-I
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 94 P.3d 326 (Chen v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chen v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 94 P.3d 326 (Wash. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

94 P.3d 326 (2004)

Juan CHEN, a married woman, Appellant,
v.
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, a foreign corporation, Respondent.

No. 51377-0-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

May 3, 2004.
Publication Ordered July 12, 2004.

*327 Graham Greenlee, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

Colleen Barrett, Gregory Worden, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

BECKER, J.

Juan Chen's insurer, State Farm, paid for damage to her car after she was injured in a car accident. Chen sued and settled with the insurer of the driver who was at fault, recovering damages for her personal injuries. State Farm had a classic subrogation right to recover the property damages directly from the other driver's insurer and did so without any help from Chen. The trial court properly found that she was not entitled to have State Farm pay a pro rata share of the attorney fees attributable to the property damage. The court also properly dismissed Chen's bad faith suit against State Farm.

Review of summary judgment orders is de novo. Hadley v. Maxwell, 144 Wash.2d 306, 310, 27 P.3d 600 (2001). The appellate court engages in the same inquiry as the trial court, and considers the facts and all reasonable inferences from the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Right-Price Recreation, L.L.C v. Connells Prairie Community Council, 146 Wash.2d 370, 381, 46 P.3d 789 (2002). The facts stated in the light most favorable to Chen are as follows.

On May 30, 1997, James Vaughn struck Juan Chen from behind as she was stopped to make a right hand turn. Chen suffered injuries to her neck and back. State Farm paid Chen $5,915.44 in personal injury protection (PIP) benefits, and $8,773.44 in property damage for Chen's car and rental expenses. These amounts are not disputed.

*328 Chen filed suit against Vaughn, seeking damages for personal injury. Her suit did not seek recovery for damage to her car. Vaughn's insurer, Farmers Insurance, eventually settled with Chen for $25,000, the limit of Vaughn's personal injury policy. From this settlement Farmers withheld and put into escrow $5,915.44, the amount of State Farm's PIP payment. Farmers issued Chen a check for the remainder, $19,084.56. Farmers temporarily put $8,873.44 into a separate escrow for Chen's property damage and car rental expenses, but eventually paid that amount directly to State Farm.

Chen then sought further reimbursement from State Farm under her underinsured motorist coverage. State Farm denied the claim. State Farm told Chen that the $19,000 she received from the settlement with Vaughn was fair compensation for her claim, and asked Chen to forward to State Farm the PIP recovery amount.

Chen's underinsured motorist claim went to arbitration. The arbitrator awarded Chen $41,337.91. This award did not include any compensation for property damage.

The arbitration decision, rendered in March 2001, did not say whether State Farm could take an offset from the award for its prior PIP payments. Chen had already taken the position that State Farm was not entitled to be reimbursed either for property damage or PIP unless State Farm agreed to pay some portion of the awards as a share of attorney fees under Mahler v. Szucs, 135 Wash.2d 398, 957 P.2d 632 (1998). State Farm denied any obligation to pay attorney fees. Chen wrote a letter to State Farm on March 23, 2001, asking State Farm to advise her of the course of action State Farm wished her to take to enforce the arbitration decision. She received no answer. On May 9, 2001, Chen obtained an order confirming the arbitration award. But the trial court did not enter a judgment on the award, because the parties still disputed what "setoffs" and "offsets" State Farm could take from the award.[1]

Chen filed suit against State Farm on May 14, 2001, claiming breach of contract, conversion, bad faith, and violations of the Consumer Protection Act. Two weeks later, on May 30, 2001, State Farm tendered a check to Chen for $10,422.47. This amount was the $41,337.91 arbitration amount minus a $25,000 set off for the settlement amount from Farmers and a $5,915.44 offset for State Farm's prior PIP payments.[2] Chen returned State Farm's check because it did not reimburse her for attorney fees, and proceeded with her lawsuit.

Chen requested partial summary judgment on the issue of attorney fees. She contended State Farm owed a pro rata share of her attorney fees incurred to obtain the PIP and property damage payments from Vaughn. She also contended that State Farm had to collect its PIP reimbursement directly from Farmers rather than taking an offset from the arbitration award.

State Farm answered Chen's complaint, counterclaimed, and responded to Chen's summary judgment motion all on the same day.[3] In its response to Chen's summary judgment motion, State Farm asked for a stay in the proceedings pending the outcome of the appeal of Winters v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 99 Wash.App. 602, 994 P.2d 881 (2000), to the Supreme Court. Winters was expected to address the issue of whether pro rata attorney fees are payable for PIP payments. The trial court denied Chen's motion for summary judgment, and granted the stay pending the outcome in Winters. The court ordered State Farm to pay the disputed amount of attorney fees on the PIP payment into the court registry. Finally, the court found that Chen was entitled to judgment for $10,422.47 on the arbitration award, *329 and that State Farm, upon repayment of this previously rejected amount, was entitled to a satisfaction of the judgment.

On October 4, 2001, the Supreme Court ruled in Winters that when the insured recovers from the tortfeasor and creates a common fund from which the PIP insurer is able to recoup its payments, the insurer is required to pay a pro rata share of the attorney fees associated with the recovery, even though the common fund was created in part by the underinsured motorist policy. Winters, 144 Wash.2d at 881-882, 31 P.3d 1164.

After the Winters decision, State Farm filed a motion to disburse the funds held in the court registry and to satisfy judgment. Chen responded that the court should disburse the funds but withhold entering a satisfaction of judgment until State Farm paid interest from the time that Vaughn's insurer withheld the PIP payment from the settlement. On February 19, 2002, the court entered an order to disburse funds from the court registry to Chen for a total amount of $2,492.79, which represented State Farm's share of attorney fees for the PIP recovery. The court's order stated that this disbursement represented a satisfaction of judgment. The court ordered that there be no payment of interest, as the right to interest had not been established.

Winters

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94 P.3d 326, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chen-v-state-farm-mut-auto-ins-co-washctapp-2004.