Dines v. Pacific Ins. Co., Ltd.

893 P.2d 176, 78 Haw. 325
CourtHawaii Supreme Court
DecidedApril 17, 1995
Docket17433
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 893 P.2d 176 (Dines v. Pacific Ins. Co., Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Hawaii Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dines v. Pacific Ins. Co., Ltd., 893 P.2d 176, 78 Haw. 325 (haw 1995).

Opinions

LEVINSON, Justice.

The petitioner-appellant Wayne Dines appeals the order of the second circuit court denying his petition to compel arbitration with his automobile liability insurance carrier, the respondent-appellee Pacific Insurance Company, Ltd. (Pacific), regarding his claim for uninsured motorist (UM) benefits. The outcome of Dines’s appeal turns on whether, under Hawaii law, a named insured under an automobile liability insurance policy, who is injured by a hit-and-run driver, can be entitled to UM benefits thereunder when the named insured is operating a motorcycle at the time of his accident. Because we hold that the named insured can, we reverse the circuit court’s order denying Dines’s petition to compel arbitration and remand this matter to the circuit court for the entry of an order granting Dines’s petition.

I. BACKGROUND

On. May 5, 1993, Dines allegedly lost control of his motorcycle when a driver of an unidentified automobile failed to yield the right-of-way at an intersection. Dines reported the accident to his automobile liability insurer, Pacific, by way of a certified letter mailed on June 3, 1993, and claimed UM benefits. Pacific received the letter on June 4, 1993,1 but refused to accept Dines’s claim.

At the time of the accident, Dines was the named insured under two relevant liability insurance policies. The first was issued by Progressive Companies (Progressive) and covered his motorcycle. Progressive’s motorcycle policy contained bodily injury liability limits of $35,000.00 per person but did not include any optional UM coverage because Dines had expressly rejected it. The second, issued by Pacific, covered Dines’s two automobiles and included UM coverage with limits of $250,000.00 per person and $500,000.00 per accident. Pacific’s automobile policy included an arbitration agreement that provided that if Pacific and Dines could not agree on “[wjhether [Dines] [was] legally entitled to recover damages ... [or] [a]s to the amount of damages[,] either party [could] make a written demand for arbitration.”

On June 30, 1993, Dines demanded that Pacific arbitrate his UM claim pursuant to the arbitration agreement. Pacific refused. Pursuant to Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) § 658-3 (1985),2 Dines then filed a petition in the second circuit court seeking to compel Pacific to arbitrate his UM claim. When the circuit court denied his petition, Dines timely appealed.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

A petition to compel arbitration is reviewed de novo, “using the same standard employed by the trial court and based upon the same evidentiary materials as were before [it] in determination of the motion.” Koolau Radiology, Inc. v. Queen’s Medical Center, 73 Haw. 433, 439-40, 834 P.2d 1294, 1298 (1992) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). We therefore apply the “right/wrong” test to the circuit court’s order denying Dines’s petition.

[327]*327III. THE CONTROLLING STATUTE, APPLICABLE LEGAL PRINCIPLES, AND THE PLAIN LANGUAGE OF PACIFIC’S AUTOMOBILE POLICY

A. The Controlling Statute As Affected By Applicable Legal Principles

As of May 5, 1993 (the date of Dines’s accident), UM coverage under Pacific’s automobile policy was governed by the terms of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) § 431:10C-301 (Supp.1992), which provides in relevant part:

Required motor vehicle policy coverage.
[[Image here]]
(b) A motor vehicle insurance policy shall include:
[[Image here]]
(3) With respect to any motor vehicle registered or principally garaged in this State, liability coverage ... for bodily injury or death ... for the protection of persons insured thereunder who are legally entitled to recover damages from owners or operators of uninsured motor vehicles because of bodily injury ... resulting therefrom; provided, however, that the coverage required under this paragraph shall not be applicable where any named insured in the policy shall reject the coverage in writing[.]

Thus, as the named insured under Pacific’s automobile policy, pursuant to which Dines had opted and paid premiums for $250,000.00 of personal UM coverage, HRS § 431:100-301(b)(3) obligated Pacific to indemnify Dines, inter alia, for any bodily injury that he sustained as a result of the conduct of the owner or operator of any uninsured motor vehicle from whom he was legally entitled to recover damages.

Put differently, and as a general proposition, UM statutes such as HRS § 431:100-301(b)(3)

are considered to be remedial in nature3 designed to afford maximum protection to a state’s residents, and to fill the gaps in compulsory insurance plans. Their purpose is to provide a remedy where injury is caused by an uninsured motorist; or, as has been more frequently stated, to provide a remedy to the innocent victims of irresponsible motorists who may have no resources to satisfy the damages they cause. This recourse [ ] is provided, then, to cover the situation of a wrongful or tortious act of an uninsured motorist or a hit and run driver, or that of another unknown motorist.
... Ideally, the purpose is to place those injured in the same position they would have occupied had the tortfeasor carried liability insurance....

8C Appleman, Insurance Law and Practice § 5067.45, at 41-46 (1981) (footnotes omitted) (quoted with approval in Dawes v. First Ins. Co. of Hawai'i Ltd., 77 Hawai'i 117, 122-23, 883 P.2d 38, 43-44, reconsideration denied, 77 Hawai'i 489, 889 P.2d 66 (1994) (footnotes omitted) (brackets and ellipses in original)).

Being a remedial statute, HRS § 431:10C-301(b)(3) is “to be construed liberally in order to accomplish the purpose for which it was enacted.... [Remedial] statutes are liberally construed to suppress the [perceived] evil and advance the [enacted] remedy.” Flores v. United Air Lines, Inc., 70 Haw. 1, 12, 757 P.2d 641, 647 (1988) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted) (brackets in original).

It is a cardinal principle of UM insurance that

“[a]n insured or an insured vehicle must be involved in the accident in order to collect under the UM endorsement.” 12A J. Couch, Cyclopedia of Insurance Law § 45:634, at 127 (R. Anderson and M. Rhodes 2d ed. 1981) ... (emphasis added). This is because “[t]he uninsured motorist policy is personal to the insured[,]” Palisbo v. Hawaiian Ins. & Guar. Co. Ltd., 57 Haw. 10, 15, 547 P.2d 1350

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. DeMello.
361 P.3d 420 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2015)
Shimose v. Hawai'i Health Systems Corp.
345 P.3d 145 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2015)
Lee v. Government Employees Insurance
911 F. Supp. 2d 947 (D. Hawaii, 2012)
Wilson v. Board of Dental Examiners
209 P.3d 194 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2009)
Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Sentinel Insurance Co.
205 P.3d 594 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2009)
Sierra Club v. Department of Transportation of the State
202 P.3d 1226 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2009)
Peters v. Aipa
188 P.3d 822 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2008)
Douglass v. Pflueger Hawaii, Inc.
135 P.3d 129 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2006)
Mikelson v. United Services Automobile Ass'n
111 P.3d 601 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2005)
Burgess v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance
603 S.E.2d 861 (Court of Appeals of South Carolina, 2004)
Nihi Lewa, Inc. v. Department of Budget & Fiscal Services
80 P.3d 984 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2003)
Dai-Tokyo Royal State Insurance Co. v. Yokote
80 P.3d 1002 (Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, 2003)
United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646 v. Yogi
62 P.3d 189 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2002)
United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO v. Yogi
62 P.3d 189 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2002)
State v. Harada
41 P.3d 174 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2002)
Williamson v. Hawai'i Paroling Authority
35 P.3d 210 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2001)
Progressive Casualty Insurance v. Ferguson
134 F. Supp. 2d 1159 (D. Hawaii, 2001)
State v. Kalama
8 P.3d 1224 (Hawaii Supreme Court, 2000)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
893 P.2d 176, 78 Haw. 325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dines-v-pacific-ins-co-ltd-haw-1995.