Levy v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.

293 P.3d 40, 2011 WL 322527, 2011 Colo. App. LEXIS 148
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 3, 2011
DocketNo. 09CA2451
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 293 P.3d 40 (Levy v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Levy v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 293 P.3d 40, 2011 WL 322527, 2011 Colo. App. LEXIS 148 (Colo. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

Opinion by

Judge GRAHAM.

Plaintiff insured, Susan Levy, appeals the district court's order declaring that American Family Mutual Insurance Company (American Family), the insurer of a vehicle in which she was a passenger, was entitled to deduct the amount of medical payments previously paid on her behalf from an arbitration award for damages under the insurance policy. American Family cross-appeals the district court's orders granting prejudgment interest and costs in favor of Levy. We affirm the order entitling American Family to deduct previously paid medical payments, reverse the orders granting prejudgment interest and costs in favor of Levy, and remand.

I. Background

In 2004, Levy was a passenger in a vehicle owned by Constance Gouge-Richardson. Gouge-Richardson had an insurance policy (policy) with American Family. Levy was injured in an automobile accident caused by Jessica Fink, who was insured by USAA. Pursuant to the medical payment coverage of the insurance policy, American Family paid $18,838 to various medical providers for Levy's medical expenses. The policy included a medical payment subrogation clause, which read:

Our Recovery Rights. If we pay under this policy, we are entitled to all the rights of recovery of the person to whom payment was made against another. That [43]*43person must sign and deliver to us any legal papers relating to that recovery, do whatever else is necessary to help us exercise those rights and do nothing after loss to harm our rights.
When we pay damages under this policy to a person who also collects from another, the amount collected from the other shall be repaid to us to the extent of our payment.

Levy sought American Family's permission to settle with Ms. Fink and USAA. In response, American Family sent a letter that stated, "American family [sic] has waived its rights of subrogation against both USAA and their insured Jessica Sink [sic]." Levy received $23,763.77 from her settlement with Ms. Fink and USAA.

Levy also filed a complaint in the district court seeking money damages from American Family under the uninsured/underin-sured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage of the policy. She exercised her right under the policy to seek binding arbitration.

The arbitration panel determined that Levy's damages totaled $77,500. The arbiters also found that Levy's medical expenses from the accident totaled $25,000, which was included in the $77,500 award. The arbitration panel later modified its award to include the following language:

At the commencement of the hearings in these matters, the parties agreed that, after award, they would modify and conform the award according to the terms of the insurance contract between the parties.

Both parties agree that the district court was the proper forum for modification and confirming the award. American Family filed a motion for declaration of applicable law and for confirmation of modified award in which it requested the district court to declare that it was entitled to reduce the arbitration award by the $18,838 it had paid for Levy's medical expenses. Levy opposed this reduction.

The district court concluded that American Family was entitled to reduce the arbitration award by the amount American Family had paid for Levy's medical expenses. It found that the subrogation clause in the policy gave American Family the right to recover the medical payments. Therefore, the court concluded Levy could not have recovered her past medical expenses from the tortfeasor and should not recover them under the policy's UM/UIM coverage. The court also concluded that the subrogation provision was not in violation of public policy pursuant to DeHerrera v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co., 219 P.3d 346 (Colo.App.2009). The court further found that American Family did not waive its subrogation rights between it and Levy in the letter expediting Levy's settlement opportunities.

Thus, in the order of confirmation, the district court found that Levy was entitled to receive $77,500, less $28,763.77 (the amount received from the tortfeasor's insurance company), less $18,838 (the amount paid by American Family for medical payments), for a net payment of $34,898.28.

Meanwhile, Levy filed a motion for prejudgment and postjudgment interest on the arbitration award, as well as for costs. American Family opposed the motion. The district court concluded that Levy was entitled to prejudgment and postjudgment interest in the total amount of $16,421.44, as well as costs in the amount of $1,514.88.

Levy appeals the district court's order determining that American Family was entitled to reduce the arbitration award by the amount it had paid for her medical expenses. American Family cross-appeals the district court's orders granting prejudgment interest and costs in favor of Levy.

II. Medical Payments

Levy contends the district court erred in concluding that American Family was entitled to reduce the arbitration award by the amount it previously paid for her medical expenses. We disagree.

A district court's legal conclusions regarding a motion to confirm or vacate an arbitration award are reviewed de novo. Barrett v. Inv. Mgmt. Consultants, Ltd., 190 P.3d 800, 802 (Colo.App.2008).

We also review the interpretation of an insurance contract de novo. DeHerr[44]*44era, 219 P.3d at 349. We give the words and phrases in an insurance contract their plain, everyday meaning, and construe them to carry out the intent of the parties. Id. at 349-50.

Initially, we assume that this issue is properly before us because both parties concede that they agreed to allow the district court to determine if the insurance policy entitled American Family to reduce the arbitration award by the amount of the medical payments made after the arbitration panel rendered its award. If the parties had not reserved this issue, the district court would not have had grounds to modify the arbitration award. See Magenis v. Bruner, 187 P.3d 1222, 1224 (Colo.App.2008) ("absent specific statutory grounds to vacate, modify, or correct an award, a court may not review the merits of the award"); see also § 18-22-224, C.R.S.2010 (setting forth specific grounds for modifying or correcting an arbitration award).

A. Waiver

Both parties agree that American Family waived its rights to subrogation. Nonetheless, they disagree about the effect of this waiver. Levy argues that based upon its waiver American Family is not entitled to reduce the arbitration award by the amount it paid for her medical expenses. American Family responds that when it waived its sub-rogation rights, the waiver did not affect its right to avoid making duplicative medical payments to Levy, or, put another way, medical payments in addition to the reimbursed medical payments Levy recovered from Fink's insurer.

We agree with American Family that the waiver did not affect its right to avoid dupli-cative payments as set forth below.

B. Collateral Source Rule

We first reject Levy's contention that the contract exception to the collateral source rule prevents American Family from reducing the arbitration award by the $18,888 it paid for her medical expenses.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
293 P.3d 40, 2011 WL 322527, 2011 Colo. App. LEXIS 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/levy-v-american-family-mutual-insurance-co-coloctapp-2011.