Hedges v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance

846 N.E.2d 16, 109 Ohio St. 3d 70
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 2006
DocketNos. 2005-0193 and 2005-0415
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 846 N.E.2d 16 (Hedges v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hedges v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance, 846 N.E.2d 16, 109 Ohio St. 3d 70 (Ohio 2006).

Opinions

Lanzinger, J.

{¶ 1} The issue before us is whether the interpretation of R.C. 3937.18(A) in Moore v. State Auto. Mut. Ins. Co. (2000), 88 Ohio St.3d 27, 723 N.E.2d 97, is applicable to the version of R.C. 3937.18(A) as amended by Am.Sub.H.B. No. 261, 147 Ohio Laws, Part II, 2372 (“H.B. 261”), effective September 3, 1997. We hold that it is not.

[71]*71Facts and Procedural Background

{¶ 2} On January 1, 2001, Bruce Hedges, an Arizona resident, was riding his bicycle just outside Tucson, Arizona. John Leasure Jr., an insured motorist driving a truck, struck Hedges from behind, knocking him off his bike. Bruce died of injuries sustained in the accident. Leasure’s insurer paid the limits of his policy, and Bruce’s insurer paid damages on a claim for underinsured-motorist (“UIM”) coverage. Bruce’s mother, Mary Hedges, the appellee, received a portion of those payments. Hedges was an Ohio resident, and on the date of her son’s accident, she held an automobile insurance policy and an umbrella insurance policy issued by Nationwide Insurance Company, the appellant. Both policies provided uninsured/underinsured-motorist (“UM/UIM”) coverage. The umbrella policy applied to losses covered by the insured’s underlying automobile insurance policy. The automobile insurance policy’s UM/UIM provision provides that Nationwide “will pay compensatory damages, including derivative claims, which are due by law to you or a relative from the owner or driver of an uninsured [or underinsured] motor vehicle because of bodily injury suffered by you or a relative.” The definition of “relative” in Hedges’s policy states that a relative is “one who regularly lives in your household and who is related to you by blood, marriage or adoption.” By the terms of Hedges’s policy, her adult son was not a “relative,” because he did not live in her household.

{¶ 3} Hedges submitted a claim for UIM coverage under her automobile insurance policy, claiming that the policy covers the damages she sustained from the nonphysical, personal loss she experienced as a result of her son’s death. Nationwide denied benefits, stating that Hedges’s claim was not a covered loss. Hedges then filed a complaint in the Common Pleas Court of Franklin County seeking a declaration of her rights under the policies and also asserting claims against Nationwide for breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, unjust enrichment, and bad-faith breach of contract.

{¶ 4} Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. Hedges requested summary judgment on policy coverage, asserting that this court’s decision in Moore, 88 Ohio St.3d 27, 723 N.E.2d 97, involved similar facts and circumstances and applied to her claim. Moore held that R.C. 3937.18(A) does not permit an insurer to limit uninsured-motorist coverage in such a way that an insured must suffer bodily injury, sickness, or disease to recover damages from the insurer.

{¶ 5} Nationwide argued, in defense, that because Moore interpreted an earlier version of R.C. 3937.18(A) as amended by Am.Sub.S.B. No. 20, 145 Ohio Laws, Part I, 204, 210 (“S.B. 20”), Moore does not control this case. The version of R.C. 3937.18(A) in effect when Hedges entered her contracts with Nationwide was the version as amended later by H.B. 261. Nationwide contended that the H.B. 261 version of R.C. 3937.18(A) permits an insurer to limit UM/CJIM [72]*72coverage to accidents in which an insured suffers bodily injury; therefore, Nationwide claimed, Hedges was not entitled to coverage, because she did not meet the bodily injury requirement.

{¶ 6} The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Nationwide, finding that Moore did not apply to the H.B. 261 version of R.C. 3937.18 and that the policy provision at issue restricted UM/UIM coverage to claims for bodily injury suffered only by an insured. Because Hedges did not suffer bodily injury and her son was not an insured under the policy, she was not entitled to UIM coverage under her policies.

{¶ 7} Hedges appealed to the Franklin County Court of Appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in finding Moore inapplicable to the circumstances of her case. Relying on Bernabei v. Cincinnati Ins. Cos., Stark App. Nos. 2002CA00073 and 2002CA00078, 2004-Ohio-4939, 2004 WL 2260686, the court of appeals ruled that the trial court had erred. It held that Moore applied and that UIM coverage should not have been denied, as the policy provision at issue contravened R.C. 3937.18 by requiring an insured to sustain bodily injury.

{¶ 8} The case is before us upon determination that a conflict exists between the Tenth and Second District Courts of Appeals and pursuant to the acceptance of a discretionary appeal.

{¶ 9} We reverse the judgment and hold that Moore does not apply to the version of R.C. 3937.18(A) as amended by H.B. 261.

Law and Argument

{¶ 10} The Tenth District Court of Appeals has framed the issue in conflict as being whether the Ohio Supreme Court decision in Moore is applicable to the version of R.C. 3937.18(A) as amended by H.B. 261. In its discretionary appeal, Nationwide offers two propositions of law. The first asserts that Moore does not apply to the H.B. 261 version of R.C. 3937.18, and the second proposes that we overrule Moore. To address the first argument, we must discuss the history behind Moore and the amendments to R.C. 3937.18.

{¶ 11} This court’s decision in Sexton v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (1982), 69 Ohio St.2d 431, 23 O.O.3d 385, 433 N.E.2d 555, preceded Moore and was the first case to interpret the version of R.C. 3937.18 that was in effect before the S.B. 20 amendments to the statute. In Sexton, Gareld Sexton’s 17-year-old daughter was killed by an uninsured motorist. The daughter did not live with Sexton and was not an insured under his policy with State Farm Automobile Insurance Company. Sexton paid $2,300 in medical and funeral expenses related to his daughter’s injuries and death. State Farm denied Sexton’s claim for these damages. The State Farm policy provided UM coverage for “damages * * * because of bodily injury sustained by the insured.” Id. at 432, 23 O.O.3d 385, 433 [73]*73N.E.2d 555. This court held that because the policy required that an insured suffer bodily injury before receiving UM coverage, it violated R.C. 3937.18(A), as this restriction attempted to limit recovery. Construing the language of R.C. 3937.18, Sexton stated, “Although [R.C. 3937.18(A) ] does not indicate who must have sustained the bodily injury, it does not specify that it be the insured. Because the statute should be construed liberally, * * * we will not add that limitation.” Id. at 434, 23 O.O.3d 385, 433 N.E.2d 555.

{¶ 12} After Sexton, the General Assembly amended R.C. 3937.18 several times. The S.B. 20 version, effective October 20,1994, stated:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
846 N.E.2d 16, 109 Ohio St. 3d 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hedges-v-nationwide-mutual-insurance-ohio-2006.