Gardner v. Erie Insurance

691 A.2d 459, 456 Pa. Super. 563, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 240
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided February 5, 1997·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinions

FORD ELLIOTT, Judge:

In this appeal, we are asked to decide whether the trial court erred when it granted appellee Erie Insurance Company’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. Finding error, we reverse.

The facts, about which there is no disagreement, can be briefly stated. On October 23, 1994, appellant Lorren Gardner (Gardner) was injured when the car he was driving was hit by a phantom vehicle. Gardner was driving a 1990 Geo Metro owned by Gardner’s co-employee Steven J. Ward (Ward), a passenger in the Geo at the time of the accident. Ward insured the Geo with appellee Erie Insurance Company (Erie) under a policy that provided for uninsured motorist benefits. Gardner and Ward were acting within the scope of their employment at the time of the accident in question.1 (R.R. at 43-44.)

Gardner recovered uninsured motorist benefits from his own insurance policy with Progressive Insurance in the amount of $15,000, and also received Workers’ Compensation benefits from his employer. He then sought to recover uninsured motorist benefits under Ward’s insurance policy with Erie. When Erie denied benefits, Gardner brought an action seeking declaratory relief on June 20, 1995. The parties then engaged in the taking of deposition testimony and other discovery, after which Erie filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings and summary judgment, and Gardner filed a motion [567] for summary judgment. Oral argument was held on the various motions on April 9, 1996, after which the trial court took the matter under advisement. On May 21, 1996, the trial court issued its memorandum and order granting Erie’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. This order was filed May 22, 1996. Gardner then timely filed the instant appeal on June 11, 1996.

The gravamen of Gardner’s issues on appeal is whether the trial court erred when it determined as a matter of law that Gardner could not seek recovery under a co-employee’s policy of insurance for uninsured motorist benefits where Gardner had already received workers’ compensation benefits. Or, as Erie stated the issue, “When an employee has received workers’ compensation benefits for injuries sustained while operating a co-employee’s motor vehicle within the scope of his employment, do the exclusivity provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act and the repeal of 75 Pa.C.S.A. § 1737 statutorily bar [Gardner] from recovering uninsured motorists benefits from his co-employee’s personal policy of motor vehicle insurance?” (Erie’s brief at 1.)

A motion for judgment on the pleadings is governed by Pa. R. Civ. P. 1034, which provides:

(a) After the pleadings are closed, but within such time as not to delay the trial, any party may move for judgment on the pleadings.
(b) The court shall enter such judgment or order as shall be proper on the pleadings.

Pa. R. Civ. P. 1034, 42 Pa.C.S.A.2

Our scope of review of a trial court’s granting of a motion for judgment on the pleadings is plenary. An appellate court will apply the same standard applied by the trial court. A court should grant a motion for judgment on the pleadings where the pleadings demonstrate that no genuine [568] issue of fact exists, and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
... [A] trial court must confine its consideration to the pleadings true all well pleaded statements of fact, admissions, and any documents properly attached to the pleadings presented by the party against whom the motion is filed. The court may grant judgment on the pleadings only where the moving party’s right to succeed is certain and the case is so free from doubt that the trial would clearly be a fruitless exercise.
We will reverse a trial court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings only where a clear error of law has been committed or where there were facts disclosed by the pleadings which should have been resolved by the jury.

Fowkes v. Shoemaker, 443 Pa.Super. 343, 346, 661 A.2d 877, 878 (1995), allocatur denied, 544 Pa. 609, 674 A.2d 1072 (1996), quoting McAllister v. Millville Mutual Insurance Co., 433 Pa.Super. 330, 640 A.2d 1283 (1994), allocatur denied, 539 Pa. 653, 651 A.2d 540 (1994) (other citations omitted).

Instantly, the trial court relied on the supreme court’s recent decision in Ducjai v. Dennis, 540 Pa. 103, 656 A.2d 102 (1995), as well as 1993 amendments to the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law (MVFRL) as support for its grant of judgment on the pleadings. In particular, the trial court relied upon the repeal or partial repeal of 75 Pa.C.S.A. §§ 1720, 1735, and 1737. The trial court also cited General Accident Insurance Company of America v. Parker, 445 Pa.Super. 300, 665 A.2d 502 (1995) (injured person who makes a claim for uninsured motorist benefits under an insurance policy to which he is not a signatory is in the category of a third-party beneficiary, and is thus bound by the same limitations in the insurance contract, including waiver of uninsu-rance benefits, as the parties to the contract), allocatur denied, 544 Pa. 631, 675 A.2d 1249 (1996), and Mitchell v. Philadelphia Electric Company, 281 Pa.Super. 452, 422 A.2d 556 (1980), to support its analysis. We will begin our analysis with Ducjai.

[569] In Ducjai, the supreme court was confronted with the issue of “whether passage of the Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility Law [“MVFRL”], 75 Pa.C.S. § 1701 et seq., expressed a legislative intent to alter the law regarding an employee’s tort liability for injuries sustained by a co-employee in an accident during the course and scope of her employment.” Ducjai, supra at 105, 656 A.2d at 102 (emphasis added). As the Ducjai court rephrased the issue, “More specifically, may an employee recover both workers’ compensation benefits from her employer as well as damages at common law from her co-employee under the MVFRL, when injured in an automobile accident during the course and scope of his [sic] employment?” Id. at 105, 656 A.2d at 102-03 (emphasis added). A brief review of the facts of Ducjai follows.

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Gardner v. Erie Insurance, 691 A.2d 459, 456 Pa. Super. 563, 1997 Pa. Super. LEXIS 240 (Pa. Ct. App. 1997).

691 A.2d 459 (Gardner v. Erie Insurance) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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