Opal Corp. v. American Family Insurance Group

518 N.W.2d 642, 1994 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 1994 WL 283380
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedJune 28, 1994
DocketNo. C0-94-90
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 518 N.W.2d 642 (Opal Corp. v. American Family Insurance Group) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Opal Corp. v. American Family Insurance Group, 518 N.W.2d 642, 1994 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 1994 WL 283380 (Mich. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

PARKER, Judge.

The workers’ compensation carrier brought a subrogation action against a negligent third party’s automobile liability insurer pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 176.061 Subd. 7 [643]*643(1992). Cross motions for summary judgment were filed. The automobile liability insurer appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment entitling the workers’ compensation carrier to recover as a separate claimant under an additional (“each occurrence”) liability cap contained in the insurance policy. We reverse.

FACTS

The facts of this case are not disputed. The case arises from a 1990 automobile accident involving Raymond Ulrich and Laura Larson. Larson suffered injuries in the accident while acting in the course and scope of her employment with respondent Opal Corp. (“Opal”). Opal paid workers’ compensation benefits to Larson pursuant to Minn.Stat. §§ 176.01-176.86 (1992).

At the time of the accident, Ulrich carried automobile liability insurance issued by the appellant, American Family Insurance Group (“American Family”). The policy provides bodily injury liability coverage of $100,000 for “each person” and $300,000 for “each occurrence.” Liability coverage is subject to the following limits:

(1) the bodily injury liability limit for “each person” is the maximum for all damages sustained by all persons as the result of bodily injury to one person in any one occurrence.
(2) subject to the bodily injury liability limit for “each person,” the bodily injury liability limit for “each occurrence” is the maximum for bodily injury sustained by two or more persons in any one occurrence.
We will pay no more than these máximums no matter how many vehicles are described in the declarations, or insured persons, claims, claimants policies or vehicles are involved.

After the accident, Larson began an action against Ulrich for personal injury damageé. Opal and its workers’ compensation insurer, the Minnesota Assigned Risk Plan, through Berkley Administrators Inc. (“Berkley”), also began a third-party subrogation action against Ulrich pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 176.-061 Subd. 7 (1992). Larson entered into a Naig settlement with Ulrich and American Family, accepting $82,059.93 for her personal damages. See Naig v. Bloomington Sanitation, 258 N.W.2d 891 (Minn.1977). American Family tendered the $17,940.07 remaining from the $100,00 “each person” limit as settlement of Berkley’s statutory subrogation claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.061 Subd. 7 (1992).

In accordance with Miller v. Shugart, 316 N.W.2d 729 (Minn.1982), the parties entered into a reverse Naig settlement, stipulating that liability for the subrogation claim exceeds $100,000. The parties agreed to reserve for determination by the court whether Berkley may recover its subrogation claim from a second “each person” aggregate coverage limit under the American Family policy. The trial court ruled that Berkley is not a “person” for purposes of the insurance policy and therefore not subject to the single liability cap. The court held that Berkley was entitled to recover a second full policy limit of $100,000 from American Family. American Family appeals from the trial court’s grant of summary judgment.

ISSUE

May a workers’ compensation carrier recover from the liability insurer of a negligent third party as an additional claimant under a separate liability cap in the insurance policy to satisfy a subrogation claim pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 176.061 Subd. 7 (1992)?

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and either party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Minn.R.Civ.P. 56.03; Gaspord v. Washington County Planning Comm’n, 312 Minn. 591, 252 N.W.2d 590, 590 (1977). No genuine issue of material fact exists in the present case, and the legal issue is whether American Family must satisfy Berkley’s $100,000 statutory workers’ compensation subrogation claim from the $300,-000 aggregate policy limit. Interpretation of insurance policy language is a question of law. Iowa Kemper Ins. Co. v. Stone, 269 N.W.2d 885, 886-87 (Minn.1978). A reviewing court is not bound by, and need not give [644]*644deference to, a trial court’s determination of a purely legal question. See Frost-Benco Elec. Ass’n v. Minnesota Pub. Utils. Comm’n, 358 N.W.2d 639, 642 (Minn.1984).

Respondent Berkley maintains that pursuant to Minn.Stat. § 176.061 Subd. 7 (1992), a workers’ compensation insurer is a claimant with a separate cause of action against a third party to recover reimbursement for workers’ compensation benefits incurred and paid as a result of the negligence of the third party. This statement is correct. Travelers Ins. Co. v. Springer, 289 N.W.2d 131, 133 (Minn.1979). Berkley, however, settled its claim with Ulrich, the negligent third party, and now requests indemnification by American Family, Ulrich’s automobile liability insurer. American Family acknowledges Berkley’s statutory subrogation claim, but contends that recovery is subject to coverage limitations within the insurance policy. Specifically, American Family asserts that since only one person suffered bodily injury, liability coverage for both the employee’s personal injury claim and the workers’ compensation insurer’s subrogation claim is limited to a single $100,000 “each person” coverage maximum. The question to be resolved is whether Berkley’s workers’ compensation subrogation claim under Minn.Stat. § 176.061 Subd. 7 is limited by the liability caps imposed by American Family’s insurance contract.

In Bekis v. Schilling, 357 N.W.2d 362, 364-65 (Minn.App.1984), this court held that a workers’ compensation carrier is entitled to a separate liability cap for reimbursement from the State of Minnesota when the state is a negligent third party. In Bekis, however, the tort claims act limited the state’s liability to $100,000 for “any claimant.” See Minn.Stat. § 3.736 Subd. 4 (1982). Since the workers’ compensation statute created a “separate and distinct” claim for the carrier, the court held that it is an additional claimant entitled to a separate liability limit. Id. at 365. In Sicoli v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 464 N.W.2d 300, 302-03 (Minn.App.1990), this court held that although an injured wife’s husband was a separate claimant, his claim for loss of consortium is not a separate bodily injury and therefore coverage is limited by the insurance policy’s liability cap for injury to one person.

The common law claim in Sicoli is distinguishable from the present case, which involves a legislatively created claim under the workers’ compensation statute.

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Bluebook (online)
518 N.W.2d 642, 1994 Minn. App. LEXIS 602, 1994 WL 283380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/opal-corp-v-american-family-insurance-group-minnctapp-1994.