Freeman v. Philan

859 So. 2d 821, 2003 WL 22310421
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 9, 2003
Docket37,685-CA, 37,684-CW, 37,687-CW
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 859 So. 2d 821 (Freeman v. Philan) 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
Freeman v. Philan, 859 So. 2d 821, 2003 WL 22310421 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

859 So.2d 821 (2003)

Shannon FREEMAN, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Allen P. PHILAN, Wray Ford, Inc. and Reliance Insurance Company, Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 37,685-CA, 37,684-CW, 37,687-CW.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

October 9, 2003.
Rehearing Denied November 7, 2003.

*822 Pettiette, Armand, Dunkelman Woodley, Byrd & Cromwell, by Donald J. Armand, Jr., Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips, by W. Shelby McKenzie, Counsel for Defendant-Appellant RLI Ins. Co.

Sam N. Gregorio, Amy-Elizabeth Brainard, Counsel for Plaintiff-Appellee Shannon Freeman.

Zelda W. Tucker, for Defendant-Appellee Allstate Ins. Co.

Abrams & Lafargue, by Reginald W. Abrams, Karmel Mister Willis, for Defendant-Appellee Allen P. Philan.

Lunn, Irion, Salley, Carlisle & Gardner, by Jack E. Carlisle, Jr., for Defendants-Appellees Reliance Ins. Co., La. Ins. Guaranty Association, Wray Ford Inc. and Allen P. Philan.

Before BROWN, STEWART, and GASKINS, JJ.

STEWART, J.

In this consolidated matter, RLI Insurance Company ("RLI") is appealing the grant of plaintiff, Shannon Freeman's ("Freeman"), motion for partial summary judgment finding that RLI's excess insurance coverage for defendant Wray Ford drops down to provide dollar one coverage due to the insolvency of the underlying insurer Reliance Insurance Company ("Reliance"). Allstate Insurance ("Allstate") is appealing the trial court's denial of its motion for summary judgment on the issue of whether a personal insurance policy issued to Allen Philan ("Philan") properly excludes coverage for the accident at issue. For the reasons expressed hereafter, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and render.

FACTS

This suit arises out of a rear-end collision that occurred on May 24, 1999, when a *823 Wray Ford, Inc., shuttle bus driven by Allen Philan ran into the rear of a 1996 Honda Accord driven by Shannon Freeman. The accident occurred on Bert Kouns Industrial Loop where it intersects with I-49. The intersection is controlled by a series of traffic lights. At around 7:40 a.m., Ms. Freeman was stopped in traffic in the eastbound left-hand lane. The traffic was stopped at the traffic light just west of where the I-49 overpass travels over the roadway. The traffic signal was red.

Contemporaneously, Philan was also traveling eastbound on Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in the left-hand lane. Philan did not bring the Wray Ford, Inc. shuttle bus to a stop and struck the rear of Freeman's vehicle. The force of the impact caused Freeman's vehicle to travel forward and strike the vehicle stopped in front of her, a 1997 BMW driven by Kristina Dominique Owen.

On May 2, 2000, Freeman filed suit against Philan, Wray Ford, and Reliance Insurance Company. Reliance had issued a policy to Wray Ford which covered liability arising out of the operation of the shuttle bus with policy limits of $1,000,000.00. However, after Freeman's suit was filed, Reliance was placed in liquidation by the Commonwealth Court for Pennsylvania. Accordingly, Freeman filed a supplemental and amending petition on January 14, 2002, in which she added the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association ("LIGA") and RLI Insurance Company ("RLI") as defendants. Freeman alleged that LIGA was obligated to Wray Ford as a resident of Louisiana to cover the claim against the now insolvent insurer. RLI was named as a defendant as Wray Ford's excess insurance carrier with policy limits of $5,000,000.00.

In a second supplemental and amending petition filed on July 5, 2002, Freeman added Philan's personal automobile liability insurer, Allstate, as a defendant. She also filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the legal question of whether the excess insurance provided by RLI drops down to become the primary insurer due to Reliance's insolvency, thus making LIGA a secondary insurer. On October 4, 2002, Freeman filed an amending motion for partial summary judgment requesting a finding that Allstate's liability coverage ranks second after RLI's, thus bumping LIGA to third. RLI filed a cross motion for summary judgment on the identical issue requesting a finding that its coverage does not kick in unless the judgment ultimately rendered exceeds the $1,000,000.00 underlying limits. On November 22, 2002, Allstate filed a motion for summary judgment denying coverage on the basis that its coverage did not extend under the circumstances of the present case because of the policy's business use exclusion for non-owned automobiles. The motions came for hearing on December 2, 2002, and the matters were submitted on briefs. On January 24, 2003, the court issued an oral bench ruling granting the plaintiff's motion and supplemental motion for summary judgment on the issue of coverage ranking and denying RLI's and Allstate's motions for summary judgment. A judgment to that effect was submitted and signed on February 11, 2003. The instant appeal and writ applications by RLI and Allstate followed.

DISCUSSION

Construction of Insurance Policies

An insurance policy is a contract which constitutes the law between the parties. If the wording of the policy is clear and expresses the parties' intent, the policy must be enforced as written. Pareti v. Sentry Indem. Co., 536 So.2d 417, 420 421 (La.1988). Absent a conflict with statutory *824 provisions or public policy, insurers are entitled by their agreement with the insured to limit their liability and to impose reasonable conditions upon the obligations contractually assumed in a given policy. Crocker v. Roach, 33,507 (La.App.2d Cir.8/23/00), 766 So.2d 672. Summary judgment declaring a lack of coverage under a policy may not be rendered unless there is no reasonable interpretation of the policy, when applied to the undisputed facts shown by the evidence supporting the motion, under which coverage could be afforded. Crocker, at 675.

Ambiguous policy provisions are generally construed against the insurer and in favor of coverage. La. C.C. art. 2056; Cadwallader v. Allstate Ins. Co., XXXX-XXXX (La.6/27/03), 847 So.2d 577. Under this rule of strict construction, equivocal provisions seeking to narrow an insurer's obligation are strictly construed against the insurer. That strict construction principle applies only if the ambiguous policy provision is susceptible to two or more reasonable interpretations; for the rule of strict construction to apply, the insurance policy must be not only susceptible to two or more interpretations, but each of the alternative interpretations must be reasonable.

Coverage Under the RLI Policy

We find that the trial court correctly found that the RLI insurance policy was more than an umbrella policy and should cover the claim arising from the accident at issue. Under the language of the RLI policy, RLI would be responsible for the loss in excess of the retained limit. The retained limit is defined on page nine of the policy, as the amount stated in item four of the declarations. Item four of the declarations page states that the retained limit is zero. Therefore, under number two of the limits of liability section for the RLI policy, RLI would be responsible for the ultimate net loss in excess of zero, which would cover the claim of Shannon Freeman. This places them as primary insurer up to the policy limits of $5 million. RLI could have listed the retained limit as the amount of the underlying insurance carrier as did the insurer in Kelly v. Weil, 563 So.2d 221 (La.1990).

In Kelly, supra,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
859 So. 2d 821, 2003 WL 22310421, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/freeman-v-philan-lactapp-2003.