Edwards v. Dairyland Insurance Co.

560 So. 2d 95, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 893, 1990 WL 47894
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 18, 1990
DocketNo. 88-1318
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 560 So. 2d 95 (Edwards v. Dairyland Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Dairyland Insurance Co., 560 So. 2d 95, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 893, 1990 WL 47894 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

GUIDRY, Judge.

Trinity Universal Insurance Company (hereafter Trinity), uninsured motorist insurer of plaintiff, Rex Edwards, appeals the judgment of the trial court dismissing its cross-claim against Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (hereafter Liberty), liability insurer of a joint tortfeasor, Craig Chomiak, for reimbursement of a settlement payment made by Trinity to the tort victims.

The issue presented on appeal concerns the rights inter se the uninsured/underin-sured motorist (UM) carrier, the liability carrier and the tortfeasors who are all soli-darily bound to a tort victim. Our specific consideration is whether the UM carrier is required to share in satisfying the obligation to the tort victim when one of the joint tortfeasors is uninsured but the liability carrier of the other joint tortfeasor provides coverage in excess of the damages incurred.

According to the parties’ joint stipulation, this suit evolves as a result of a three vehicle accident. One vehicle was owned and operated by plaintiff, Rex Edwards. Other occupants of the Edwards’ vehicle were his wife and two children. Edwards had UM coverage with appellant, Trinity, for $100,000.00 per person and $300,000.00 per occurrence. The second vehicle was owned by Louis Jordan and driven by Ronald Jordan. The Jordans are uninsured.1 The third vehicle was owned by Cal-Tex Citrus Juice, Inc. (hereafter Cal-Tex) and driven by its employee, Craig Chomiak. The Cal-Tex vehicle was insured by Liber[96]*96ty Mutual with liability coverage up to $1,000,000.00.

As a result of the accident, Edwards and his family suffered serious injuries. Edwards filed suit against all the above named parties for damages. Trinity subsequently filed a cross-claim against Jordan, Chomiak, Cal-Tex and Liberty for amounts previously paid under their policy and for any further sums paid.

The parties stipulated that the accident was caused by the joint negligence of Jordan and Chomiak. Plaintiffs settled all claims for $650,000.00 of which $475,000.00 was paid by Liberty and $175,000.00 by Trinity. It was also stipulated that plaintiffs executed a valid assignment of their rights in favor of Trinity. Since the plaintiffs’ claims were fully satisfied in the settlement, the sole issue submitted to the trial court for decision was whether Trinity, as a matter of law, was entitled to recover from Liberty the $175,000.00 it paid in settlement to plaintiffs. The trial court decided the issue adverse to Trinity and the latter appealed.

Trinity argues that since there is liability insurance coverage available to plaintiffs, in excess of the damages incurred, from Liberty, insurer of Chomiak, that it has no UM responsibility. On the other hand, Liberty argues that Trinity stands in the shoes of the uninsured motorist, Jordan, and UM responsibility exists as a result of his partial fault. While we agree that Trinity stands in the shoes of Jordan from the standpoint of the plaintiffs, we do not agree that such is the case from the standpoint of the joint tortfeasor, Chomiak, and his insurer, Liberty, since the UM insurer, Trinity, has been subrogated to plaintiffs’ rights.

In Babineaux v. Domingue, 529 So.2d 45 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1988), Judge Stoker, in his concurring opinion, considered this precise issue concluding that although the UM carrier is solidarily bound with the joint tortfeasors to the plaintiff under Hoefly v. Government Employers Ins. Co., 418 So.2d 575 (La.1982), the relationship between the solidary obligors differs. He wrote:

“The ruling and legal holding of the Louisiana Supreme Court in Hoefly v. Government Employees Insurance Company, supra, is confined to the determination that “an automobile victim’s uninsured motorist carrier is solidarily obliged with the tort-feasor so that the victim’s timely suit against the latter interrupts prescription with regard to the insurer.” The Hoefly decision is confined to the effect of the solidarity in interrupting prescription.

In Hoefly the Supreme Court concluded by stating the following caveat at page 580:

“Allstate argues that the conclusion we have reached will cause all effects of solidarity to be applied in uninsured motorist cases. Care should be taken by civilian attorneys and jurists to be on guard against applying one segment of the code in isolation from others. Neither the Civil Code nor the revised statutes were intended to be applied in this manner. A full delineation of the relationship between the tortfeasor and the uninsured motorist carrier after payment of the debt owed by them solidarily is beyond the scope of this case. However, it is clear that the Civil Code recognizes that debtors, although solidarily bound for the creditor’s benefit, may have differing relationships among themselves. The conclusion that debtors are solidarily bound does not alone determine the rights and obligations of the debtors in relation to each other.”

Although Hoefly left open the question of how the concept of solidarity might be applied beyond the question of interruption of prescription, later expressions of the Supreme Court indicate that an uninsured or underinsured motorist carrier is obligated to pay damages as a solidary obligor with a tort-feasor. This is the holding of Johnson v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 425 So.2d 224 (La.1982) which cites Hoefly for its holding. This court construed Hoefly and Johnson in 1983 in Farnsworth v. Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co., 442 So.2d 1340 (La.App. 3d Cir.1983), writ denied, 445 So.2d 452 (La.1984). In Farnsworth there were two tort-feasors, one of which was insured and one [97]*97of which was not. The injured parties sued the carrier for the insured tort-feasor and their uninsured motorist carrier. The jury found both drivers to be equally at fault but the formal judgment cast the liability carrier solely for the plaintiffs’ entire damages. On appeal the liability carrier sought to have the uninsured motorist carrier cast solidarily with it. This court agreed on the basis of the holdings in Hoefly and Johnson. The trial court judgment was amended on appeal to cast the uninsured motorist carrier along with the liability carrier, subject to the uninsured motorist carrier’s policy limits, and the Supreme Court denied writs in the case.

Farnsworth is limited to holding the uninsured motorist carrier should be cast in judgment as a solidary obligor with the liability carrier. The appeal was taken by the liability carrier alone; the plaintiffs did not appeal. While there might be an implication implicit in the Farnsworth decision that both carriers, as between themselves, must share in the discharge of the judgment obligation, the decision does not go that far. We said that the impact of the decisions in Hoefly, Johnson and others led us to conclude that an uninsured motorist carrier is “now statutorily bound to recompense for claims of an injured party just as though it were the tortfeasor’s insurer.” This holding reflects the rights of accident victims to a solidary judgment against both liability and uninsured motorist carriers. In retrospect, since the plaintiffs did not appeal, it is conceivable that we could have rejected the liability carrier’s appeal without violence to Hoefly and Johnson. This would be so on the ground that a liability carrier has no claim against an uninsured motorist carrier.

Farnsworth did not reach the question of rights inter sese

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Related

Edwards v. Dairyland Insurance Co.
565 So. 2d 446 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
560 So. 2d 95, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 893, 1990 WL 47894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-dairyland-insurance-co-lactapp-1990.