Morales v. Barnett

978 So. 2d 722, 2006 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 622, 2006 WL 2925318
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 13, 2006
Docket2050326
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 978 So. 2d 722 (Morales v. Barnett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morales v. Barnett, 978 So. 2d 722, 2006 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 622, 2006 WL 2925318 (Ala. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinions

CRAWLEY, Presiding Judge.

In June 2003, Francina Morales was injured when she was struck by an automobile driven by Robert Shorter. In February 2004, Morales sued Shorter, seeking a total of $175,000 in damages; she also sued Safeway Insurance Companies of Alabama, Inc., Shorter’s insurance company, alleging bad-faith refusal to pay her claim. Safeway was later dismissed as a defendant, and Shorter died during the course of the litigation, resulting in the substitution of Luneal Barnett, as administrator of the estate of Robert Shorter, as a defendant. After a jury trial, at which the jury assessed Morales’s damages at $35,000, the trial court entered a judgment in favor of Morales for the entire $35,000 after denying Barnett’s motion for a setoff of a $20,000 settlement Morales had received from her insurer, GEICO, pursuant to the underinsured-motorist provisions of her policy. Barnett requested that the trial court reconsider his request for a setoff, and the trial court subsequently amended the judgment by reducing the amount of the judgment by the $20,000 settlement. Morales appeals.

As a basis for reducing the amount of the judgment, the trial court relied on Batchelor v. Brye, 421 So.2d 1267 (Ala.Civ.App.1982), in which this court permitted an insured tortfeasor to partially satisfy a judgment against both him and an uninsured tortfeasor with the uninsured-motorist benefits received by the plaintiff from his insurer. Morales admits that Batche-lor appears to be authority for the trial court’s amended judgment. However, she argues that we should either distinguish Batchelor or overrule it.

We will begin our consideration of whether uninsured/underinsured-motorist benefits paid to a plaintiff should be set off against a judgment the plaintiff secures against a tortfeasor with a discussion of the holding in Batchelor. Archie Batche-lor, as administrator of the estate of his deceased son, sued Charles Dienhelt and [724]*724Hattie Mae Brye, alleging that their negligence resulted in the death of Batchelor’s son. Batchelor, 421 So.2d at 1268. Dien-helt was insured; Brye was not. Id. Batchelor also sued his insurer, State Farm Mutual Auto Insurance Company, seeking uninsured-motorist benefits. Id. State Farm and Batchelor entered into a settlement whereby State Farm paid Batchelor $10,000 pursuant to the uninsured-motorist provision of his policy. Id.

After a jury trial to determine Dien-helt’s and Brye’s liability, at which the jury determined Batchelor’s damages to be $30,000, the trial court entered a judgment on the verdict. Id. Dienhelt paid $20,000 into court and “moved to have [the entire judgment] satisfied.” Id. The trial court granted this motion, and Batchelor appealed. Id.

In affirming the trial court’s order permitting the judgment to be satisfied by Dienhelt’s $20,000 payment, the Batchelor court relied on principles of law regarding the goal of uninsured-motorist coverage, which the court stated was “to make the plaintiff whole but not to allow double recovery.” Id. at 1269. The court based its conclusion that a “plaintiff is never entitled to recover from any source more than the actual measure of damages,” id., on its consideration of the holdings of Safeco Insurance Co. v. Jones, 286 Ala. 606, 243 So.2d 736 (1970), and Alabama Farm Bureau Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. v. Clem, 49 Ala.App. 457, 273 So.2d 218 (1973).

In Jones, the supreme court considered whether the plaintiffs uninsured-motorist carrier could deny coverage to the plaintiff under an exclusion in its policy whereby the insurer'attempted to limit its liability in those instances when other insurance was available to the insured. Jones, 286 Ala. at 609, 243 So.2d at 738. The plaintiff in Jones had secured a $25,000 judgment against an uninsured motorist and had recovered $10,000 under the uninsured-motorist provision of a policy held by the driver of the vehicle in which he had been a passenger. Jones, 286 Ala. at 610, 243 So.2d at 738. The plaintiff then sought $10,000, the limits of his uninsured-motorist coverage, from his insurer; the insurer denied his claim based on the exclusion. Id. After the plaintiff successfully sued the insurer, the insurer appealed, arguing that the other-insurance exclusion applied. Id.

The supreme court struck down the other-insurance exclusion, stating:

“We hold that our statute sets a minimum amount for recovery, but it does not place a limit on the total amount of recovery so long as that amount does not exceed the amount of actual loss; that where the loss exceeds the limits of one policy, the insured may proceed under other available policies; and that where the premiums have been paid for uninsured motorist coverage, we cannot permit an insurer to avoid its statutorily imposed liability by its insertion into the policy of a liability limiting clause which restricts the insured from receiving that coverage for which the premium has been paid.
“This holding does not permit a recovery in excess of that amount to which the injured party was ‘legally entitled to recover’ by virtue of the judgment against the uninsured motorist. By this latter statement, we do not consider that we are amending or adding to the statute. The statute limits recovery of damages to that amount to which the injured party is ‘legally entitled to recover’ and that amount is legally settled prior to the claims under the statute and the policies.”

Jones, 286 Ala. at 614, 243 So.2d at 742. The Jones court was not presented with the issue whether the plaintiffs receipt of [725]*725$10,000 in uninsured-motorist benefits should be set off against the $25,000 judgment against the tortfeasor.

Similarly, Clem involved not the issue whether a tortfeasor could set off an uninsured-motorist insurance payment against a damages award but whether, by virtue of a provision in the plaintiffs policy requiring the insurer’s consent to settlement, the insurer could refuse to pay the plaintiff uninsured-motorist benefits after the plaintiff had settled for a total of $10,000 in insurance benefits from another insurance company for the death of his wife, who had been a passenger in a vehicle driven by the other insurance company’s insured when that vehicle was struck by an uninsured motorist. Clem, 49 Ala.App. at 460, 273 So.2d at 220. After securing the settlement from the insured motorist, the plaintiff then sought his insurer’s permission to sue the uninsured motorist, which his insurer granted; the plaintiff secured a $39,300 judgment against the uninsured motorist. Id. The plaintiffs insurer refused to pay the plaintiff the $10,000 in uninsured-motorist benefits provided under the plaintiffs policy because the plaintiff had not sought and received its consent to settle with the insured motorist as required by the provisions of the plaintiffs policy. Id.

The Clem court determined that the provision requiring that an insured seek approval of a settlement with an insured motorist as a prerequisite to the receipt of uninsured-motorist benefits under his own policy was a method of limiting an insurer’s liability under the policy and was not permissible under the uninsured-motorist statute. Clem, 49 Ala.App. at 461, 273 So.2d at 221. Relying in part on Jones, the court remarked that “[t]he Supreme Court in [Jones

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Related

Ex Parte Barnett
978 So. 2d 729 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 2007)

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Bluebook (online)
978 So. 2d 722, 2006 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 622, 2006 WL 2925318, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morales-v-barnett-alacivapp-2006.