Knappenberger v. Bittner

524 F. Supp. 777, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15381
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 27, 1981
DocketCiv. A. No. 81-0735
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 524 F. Supp. 777 (Knappenberger v. Bittner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Knappenberger v. Bittner, 524 F. Supp. 777, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15381 (W.D. Pa. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

WEBER, Chief Judge.

This matter is a negligence action arising out of a motor vehicle accident. Certain issues have been raised by counsel for both parties which the court has ordered briefed. Those questions are: a) the applicability of Pennsylvania No-Fault Insurance, b) the existence of subrogation rights and the joinder of any real parties in interest under Fed.R.Civ.P. 17(a) and c) the deductibility of any workmen’s compensation award from damages received in this action. We herein address these matters in the order stated above.

In this negligence action, defendant has raised the applicability of the Pennsylvania No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act, 40 Pa.Stat.Ann. § 1009.101 et seq. (hereinafter No-Fault Act), as a defense to a portion of the damages sought by the plaintiff in connection with a motor vehicle accident occurring in Pennsylvania. This question is controlled by the decision of the Superior Court in Toter v. Knight, 278 Pa.Super. 547, 420 A.2d 676 (1980), and accordingly we hold that a non-resident victim [779]*779such as this plaintiff has a right to sue in tort for all items of damage, free from the provision of the No-Fault Act partially abolishing tort liability in Pennsylvania.

Plaintiff and his wife are residents of Ohio, a state which does not have a no-fault statute. The defendant is a resident of Pennsylvania. On August 20, 1979, plaintiff was driving a semi-truck on U.S. Route 30 in Jenner Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, when he collided with a vehicle operated by the defendant. Plaintiff has recovered workmen’s compensation benefits from his employer’s insurer under Ohio law for his injuries sustained in the collision.

Plaintiff instituted this suit for damages including wage loss and medical costs as a result of defendant’s negligence. By Amended Answer, defendant contends that a portion of the damages claimed by the plaintiff in this suit must be recovered from some other party’s insurer under the No-Fault Act. Plaintiff contends that the provisions of the Pennsylvania No-Fault Act do not apply to him as a non-resident victim, and if they do apply, he may waive any remedy thereunder and pursue a common law tort claim under the law of Ohio to recover the entire amount of damages. The holding in Toter is in accord with the plaintiff’s position, and he may therefore forego the prescribed No-Fault remedies and maintain a tort claim for the full amount of his damages.

In Toter, a New Jersey resident was involved with a Pennsylvania resident in a motor vehicle accident in this state. Plaintiff alleged medical expenses exceeding $200, the applicable threshold figure in New Jersey’s No-Fault statute. N.J.S.A. § 39.-6A-8 (1973). Under that section a victim may only sue in tort for amounts in excess of the threshold figure.

The Pennsylvania No-Fault Act has a similar but distinctive provision in 40 Pa. Stat.Ann. § 1009.301(a). That section abolishes tort liability in Pennsylvania with specific exceptions. Section 1009.301(a)(5) permits suit in tort for medical expenses in excess of $750, a higher threshold than that provided in the New Jersey statute.

The plaintiff in Toter alleged medical expenses in excess of $200, the New Jersey threshold, but did not allege in excess of the $750 Pennsylvania threshold. The state trial court granted defendant’s preliminary objections, believing § 1009.301(a) had abolished tort liability below the Pennsylvania Act’s threshold amount in all instances. The Superior Court reversed, deciding that a non-resident plaintiff is accorded by § 1009.110(c)(2) the same rights to sue in tort as he enjoys in the state of his domicile, and that a non-resident’s right to sue in tort is in no way abolished or limited by the provisions of § 1009.301(a).

In the instant case, plaintiff asserts his right to sue the defendant in tort for the full extent of his damages under § 1009.-110(c)(2) which states in pertinent part:

(2) The right of a victim. . .to sue in tort shall be determined by the law of the state of domicile of such victim.

On the face of it, and without referring to § 1009.301(a), “Tort Liability: Partial Abolition”, the above quoted section would appear to reserve to non-residents the same right to sue in tort as they enjoy in their home states irrespective of the application of other provisions of the Pennsylvania No-Fault Act. See also, Dubose v. McCoy, 277 Pa.Super. 149, 419 A.2d 705 (1980); Flowers v. Smith, 12 Pa.D.&C.3d 434 (1979). This is the holding of Toter, and we will therefor permit plaintiff in this case to proceed with his tort action for all items of damages without referring him to no-fault insurers for the threshold amounts.

While we apply here the rule espoused in Toter, we find the arguments of the dissent in that decision attractive in their application to the facts of this case. That dissent places special emphasis on an integral portion of the No-Fault Act, § 1009.301(a), which states in part:

(a) Partial abolition. — Tort liability is abolished with respect to any injury that takes place in this state in accordance with the provisions of this act if such injury arises out of the maintenance or use of a motor vehicle, except that:
[780]*780(1)•••

While the Toter dissent was concerned with the limitation in § 301(a)(5) of $750 medical costs, we are here primarily concerned with the work loss limitations of § 301(a)(4). The two sections are substantially alike in their effects on abolition of tort liability both preventing recovery of damages in tort for amounts below the threshold figures. Zagari v. Gralka, 264 Pa.Super. 239, 399 A.2d 755 (1979); 40 Pa.Stat.Ann. § 1009.202. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has stated that the effect of § 1009.-301(a) is that a litigant retains common law tort remedies solely within the exceptions listed thereunder. Singer v. Sheppard, 464 Pa. 387, 398, 346 A.2d 897, 904 (1975). No distinction is made in this section between residents and non-residents, and no provision specifically exempts a non-resident’s right of action in tort, nor has the Pennsylvania Supreme Court indicated such a distinction. The Court in Toter has read such an exception through its interpretation of § 1009.110(c)(2).

If, as the dissent in Toter suggests, the phrase “right of the victim. . .to sue in tort” in § 1009.110(c)(2) is defined in relation to the provision on abolition of tort liability, § 1009.301(a), and if the reasoning of the dissent is applicable to the limitations of § 301(a)(4) as well as § 301(a)(5), the result is a system in which residents and non-residents are treated alike for the purpose of determining benefits under the Act and the instances in which they may sue outside the operation of the Act.

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Bluebook (online)
524 F. Supp. 777, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15381, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knappenberger-v-bittner-pawd-1981.