Ott v. Borchardt

711 N.E.2d 1066, 127 Ohio App. 3d 152
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 31, 1998
DocketNo. 13-97-47.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 711 N.E.2d 1066 (Ott v. Borchardt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ott v. Borchardt, 711 N.E.2d 1066, 127 Ohio App. 3d 152 (Ohio Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

Evans, Judge.

This is an appeal by the plaintiffs-appellants, Raymond and Carolyn Ott, from a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Seneca County granting the motion for summary judgment of defendant-appellee Westfield Insurance Company and dismissing appellant’s complaint.

Appellants were injured in an accident as passengers in an automobile driven by Andrew Beddow. Beddow’s vehicle was struck by an automobile driven by defendant Elizabeth Borchardt, who failed to stop for a stop sign. The collision between the two automobiles resulted in serious injuries to appellants and caused the death of another passenger in the Beddow vehicle. Appellants filed an action against Borchardt and against their own insurance carrier, seeking underinsured motorist coverage for their injuries. Borchardt had liability coverage with appellee with limits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. Appellants *155 had underinsured motorist coverage also with appellee, with the same limits as Bor char dt’s policy.

After settling with all the injured parties for the liability policy’s limits, appellee filed a motion for summary judgment on appellants’ underinsured motorist claim, asserting that there was no underinsured motorist coverage available based upon the revisions to the law under Am.Sub.S.B. No. 20, 145 Ohio Laws, Part I, 204 (Senate Bill 20). On October 16, 1997, the trial court granted appellee’s motion for summary judgment. Appellants filed this appeal, asserting that Senate Bill 20 was unconstitutional. Appellants asserted the following assignment of error:

“The trial court erred in finding that Am. Sub. Senate Bill 20 was constitutional as Senate Bill 20 violates the right to remedy, separation of powers, special privileges and immunities and equal protection provisions of the Ohio Constitution.” •

In Beagle v. Walden (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 59, 676 N.E.2d 506, the Supreme Court of Ohio answered the following question, certified to that court by the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division: “Is Ohio Revised Code § 3937.18(A)(2) unconstitutional on any grounds under the facts of this case, including those stated by Plaintiff[?]” R.C. 3937.18(A)(2) provides that underinsured motorist coverage, which insurers are obligated to offer any person purchasing a policy of automobile liability coverage, “shall be in an amount of coverage equivalent to the automobile liability or motor vehicle liability coverage and shall provide protection for an insured against loss for bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death, suffered by any person insured under the policy, where the limits of coverage available for payment to the insured under all bodily injury liability bonds and insurance policies covering persons liable to the insured are less than the limits for the insured’s uninsured motorist coverage. Underinsured motorist coverage is not and shall not be excess insurance to other applicable liability coverages, and shall be provided only to afford the insured an amount of protection not greater than that which would be available under the insured’s uninsured motorist coverage if the person or persons liable were uninsured at the time of the accident. The policy limits of the underinsured motorist coverage shall be reduced by those amounts available for payment under all applicable bodily injury liability bonds and insurance policies covering persons liable to the insured.” Under this statute, appellants, who have asserted the same issues as those raised in Beagle, would not be entitled to underinsured motorist proceeds, since their policy limits are the same as those of the tortfeasor.

The Beagle court first' asserted in its opinion two primary assumptions that must guide courts when scrutinizing a statute for constitutionality: First, that *156 “ ‘[statutes are presumed to be constitutional unless shown beyond a reasonable doubt to violate a constitutional provision,’ ” and second, that “ ‘[t]he legislature is the primary judge of the needs of public welfare, and [the Supreme Court] will not nullify the decision of the legislature except in the case of a clear violation of a state or federal constitutional provision.’ ” Id. at 61, 676 N.E.2d at 507, quoting Fabrey v. McDonald Village Police Dept. (1994), 70 Ohio St.3d 351, 352, 639 N.E.2d 31, 33; and Savoie v. Grange Mut. Ins. Co. (1993), 67 Ohio St.3d 500, 515, 620 N.E.2d 809, 820 (Moyer, J., dissenting). See, also, In re Coy (1993), 67 Ohio St.3d 215, 219, 616 N.E.2d 1105, 1108. The court then considered each proposition challenging the constitutionality of the statute, quoted above, with a majority of four justices deciding only that the statute as a whole does not violate the one-subject rule. Id. at 61-62, 676 N.E.2d at 507-508.

In this case, appellants first argue that the statute violates the right to a remedy granted by the Ohio Constitution, which provides, in Section 16, Article I:

“Every person, for any injury done him in his land, goods, person, or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law, and shall have justice administered without denial or delay.”

Appellants assert that, because injured insurance claimants had, under the common law, a right to excess insurance coverage under their underinsured motorist policies, Senate Bill 20 unconstitutionally denies that right by permitting insurance companies to restrict injured parties’ recovery to an amount only up to the limits of their own coverage. The Ohio Supreme Court, in Beagle, responded to this challenge by holding that there was no constitutional right to a remedy created by the court in Savoie, but that the Savoie court merely engaged in contractual interpretation. See Savoie, supra, 67 Ohio St.3d 500, 620 N.E.2d 809. Moreover, we find that the right involved in this instance is not the constitutional right to a remedy (which, of course, an injured party retains as the right to bring an action against a tortfeasor), but is only a right granted under a contract of insurance and limited by authorization of a statute. Accordingly, as found by the Beagle court:

“To the extent that the legislature may exercise its policymaking authority to alter the contractual relationship between insurer and insured to provide greater protection to the insured, it may also limit or remove those protections once given.” Id. at 64, 676 N.E.2d at 509, citing Byers v. Meridian Printing Co. (1911), 84 Ohio St. 408, 422, 95 N.E. 917, 919.

Appellants’ first contention is thus not well taken.

Second, appellants maintain that the statute violated the separation-of-powers principle of the Ohio Constitution by purporting to overrule law established by the Ohio Supreme Court in Savoie

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Bluebook (online)
711 N.E.2d 1066, 127 Ohio App. 3d 152, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ott-v-borchardt-ohioctapp-1998.