Joseph Lemerise v. The Commerce Insurance Company

137 A.3d 696, 2016 WL 1458213, 2016 R.I. LEXIS 49
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedApril 13, 2016
Docket2014-244-Appeal
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 137 A.3d 696 (Joseph Lemerise v. The Commerce Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Joseph Lemerise v. The Commerce Insurance Company, 137 A.3d 696, 2016 WL 1458213, 2016 R.I. LEXIS 49 (R.I. 2016).

Opinions

OPINION

Justice FLAHERTY,

for the Court.

The plaintiff, Joseph Lemerise, appeals from an order of the Superior Court denying his motion to confirm an arbitration award and granting the motion of the defendant, The Commerce Insurance Company, to modify the award. The plaintiff contends -that the trial justice erred when he modified the arbitration award because there was no basis to do so under Rhode Island’s Arbitration Act, codified at G.L. 1956 chapter 3 of tjtle 10. Therefore, the plaintiff argues, the award should have been confirmed. The, plaintiff also argues that the trial justice further, committed error when he reviewed the arbitrator’s award under a de novo review, because,he permitted the defendant to expand the record of the arbitration by introducing new evidence in the trial court, and because he allowed the arbitrator to testify during the hearing on the motion to modify. For the reasons set forth herein, we vacate the order of the Superior Court and direct that the arbitration áward be confirmed in its entirety. , .

Facts and Travel

There is no serious dispute about the underlying facts of this case. In August 2011, plaintiff was a pedestrian in a crosswalk in Newport when he was struck by a vehicle operated by an uninsured motorist. At the time, plaintiff was an insured under his mother’s automobile insurance policy, pursuant to the terms of which he made a claim for uninsured-motorist coverage for his injuries. Apparently there were some negotiations concerning, this claim; -the parties agreed that the motorist was at fault and that plaintiff suffered an injury to- his foot and ankle. However, the parties were unable to reach closure with respect to the extent of plaintiffs injuries and the amount that he was entitled to be compensated under the policy. After the parties were unsuccessful in resolving plaintiffs claim by negotiation, plaintiff filed suit in Newport ■ County Superior Court-against Commerce. Eventually, the parties entered into a written stipulation to [698]*698stay the action pending “participation in Arbitration pursuant to the terms of the plaintiffs [uninsured motorist policy.”

The matter was submitted to arbitration before a single arbitrator, who heard testimony and received documents into evidence. In his award, the arbitrator said that “[t]he question for decision is the extent of the injury, and the amount of compensation plaintiff is entitled to because of it.” The arbitrator determined that plaintiff was credible and that he believed his testimony that the injury had continued to affect him. The arbitrator further found that he would be surprised if plaintiff ever completely recovered from the injury to his foot. The arbitrator determined that the fair and reasonable compensation to plaintiff for his injuries was $150,000. He then awarded interest on the award at a rate of 12 percent from the date of the injury, amounting to $47,550, for a total award of $197,550.

The plaintiff then filed a motion in the Superior Court to confirm the arbitration award, pursuant to § 10-3-11. The defendant promptly objected to plaintiffs motion to confirm and filed its own motion, pursuant to § 10-3-14, to modify/correct the arbitration award to conform with the insurance policy, which provided uninsured-motorist coverage up to a limit of $100,000. A hearing was held on April 29, 2014 before a justice of the Superior Court. At the hearing, plaintiff argued that the issue presented to the trial justice was identical to that decided in Wheeler v. Encompass Insurance Co., 66 A.3d 477, 483 (R.I.2013), in which this Court held that it was error to modify an arbitration award to conform to the policy limits when the policy had not been submitted to the panel of arbitrators, because any error by the arbitrators was a mistake of law, and that is not grounds for modifying an arbitration award. He urged the court to confirm the award for the same reasons— that no grounds for modification existed to modify the award.

The defendant argued that the parties had stipulated that they would submit the dispute to arbitration in accordance with the terms of the insurance policy, which contained an uninsured-motorist coverage limit up.to $100,000 per person. See Appendix. It claimed that the issue presented to the arbitrator was .the amount of damages that plaintiff would have been entitled to recover from the tortfeasor, and not the extent of the insurer’s liability. The defendant argued that the court should grant its motion to modify the award to conform to the policy and, further, that the policy should be construed in accordance with the laws of the state of issuance, Massachusetts. It is noteworthy, however, that these arguments were made to the trial justice, even though the arbitrator was never provided with the policy, nor was he asked to apply Massachusetts law.

The trial justice heard the arguments of each party, and he directed defendant to enter the insurance policy and other documents into evidence. The trial justice then heard the testimony of the arbitrator, who had been subpoenaed by defendant. The following colloquy took place on the record during the arbitrator’s testimony:

“Q At any time were you ever asked to look. at any policies or evaluate how much would be covered under the Commerce policy?
“A I did not have the policy submitted to me. It was not offered as an exhibit. I was aware of the policy limit because Plaintiffs memorandum contained it. I decided that my job wasn’t to issue a ruling in relation to policy limits; that it was just to decide damages and calculate interest.
[699]*699“Q So your award was simply for the injuries sustained by Mr. Lemerise regardless of the amount of the coverage or any coverage issues; correct?
“A I didn’t view it — that’s correct, I didn’t view it as my role to determine coverage issues. I wasn’t aware it was a Massachusetts policy. I basically assumed that it was a Rhode, Island matter and, calculated interest as I, understood it to be calculated under Rhode Island law.
“THE COURT: As far as your issue committed to you, if you want to put it in that context, in that language, you applied Rhode Island law in determining the nature of the injury, the extent of the injury, and the amount of compensation that the insured, Mr. Lemerise, would be entitled to collect from the uninsured tort feasor [sic ]?
“THE WITNESS: Yes. I had no idea that there was a Massachusetts insurance contract here. No choice of law issues were presented, so I assumed it was Rhode Island and I applied Rhode Island law as I understood it.”

At the conclusion of the hearing, the trial justice found that the issue before him was different from, and not controlled by, Wheeler, noting that “I can’t ignore it — my job, at the risk of sounding corny, is to do justice between the parties here.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
137 A.3d 696, 2016 WL 1458213, 2016 R.I. LEXIS 49, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joseph-lemerise-v-the-commerce-insurance-company-ri-2016.