Pekin Insurance Co. v. Hugh

501 N.W.2d 508, 1993 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 161, 1993 WL 209069
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 16, 1993
Docket92-584
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 501 N.W.2d 508 (Pekin Insurance Co. v. Hugh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pekin Insurance Co. v. Hugh, 501 N.W.2d 508, 1993 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 161, 1993 WL 209069 (iowa 1993).

Opinions

[509]*509LAVORATO, Justice.

In this single-issue appeal, we must decide whether emotional distress arising from a bystander claim constitutes a bodily injury within the meaning of an underin-sured provision in an automobile liability policy. The district court thought so and so do we.

The parties stipulated to the facts in this case, so they are undisputed. Pekin Insurance Company issued an automobile policy to Rhiney Hugh. The policy names Rhi-ney, his wife Hope, their daughters Emma and Tabitha, and Tabitha’s daughter Aubrey as insureds.

In February 1990 Tabitha was driving the family car which was in the name of her father Rhiney. A car, driven by Kelly Joseph Kann, crossed the centerline and collided head-on with the Hugh car. At the time, Hope, Aubrey, and Emma were passengers in the Hugh car. Tabitha and Emma died of injuries sustained in the collision.

Kann had an automobile liability policy with limits of $40,000. The Hughs settled a personal injury action they brought against Kann for the $40,000 limits. The settlement reserved the Hughs’ rights against Pekin.

Pekin then settled with the estates of Tabitha and Emma for the $100,000 “per person” limits of the underinsured coverage in the policy. In the settlement Pekin obtained a release from Rhiney as administrator. The “per occurrence” limits of the underinsured coverage is $300,000.

Hope and Aubrey’s conservator made a demand on Pekin for all or part of the remaining $100,000 of the $300,000 total coverage under the underinsured provisions of the Pekin policy. As we said, Pekin had paid Emma’s estate $100,000 and Tabitha’s estate $100,000, leaving $100,000 out of the $300,000 per occurrence limits. Hope’s and the conservator’s demand was for emotional distress Hope and Aubrey had allegedly sustained as bystanders when they witnessed the deaths of Tabitha and Emma.

Pekin then filed this declaratory judgment action against (1) Rhiney individually and as administrator of Tabitha’s estate, (2) Hope Hugh, and (3) Aubrey’s conservator. Both sides filed motions for summary judgment.

Pekin’s motion is based on the following theory. Pekin has no obligation regarding Hope’s and Aubrey’s bystander claims. This is so because their alleged emotional distress damages arise out of the bodily injuries of Tabitha and Emma. For this reason, Hope’s and Aubrey’s damages are covered by the respective per person limits of liability for the injuries of Tabitha and Emma — limits that Pekin has paid in full to the estates of Tabitha and Emma.

In contrast, Hope’s and Aubrey’s motion is based on the following theory. The injuries underlying their bystander claims are independent bodily injuries, separate from the bodily injuries suffered by Tabitha and Emma. For this reason Pekin is liable for their bystander claims to the extent Kann would be liable for such claims. These claims, of course, would be limited to the remaining $100,000 of the $300,000 per occurrence underinsurance coverage limits.

The district court agreed with Hope and Aubrey and sustained their motion for summary judgment. Pekin appealed from this ruling. Both sides rely here on the same theories they urged in their motions.

The parties agreed that the demand Hope and Aubrey made on Pekin was for a “ ‘bystander’ claim, i.e., emotional distress ... sustained as a result of witnessing” the deaths of Tabitha and Emma. We insinuate in no way whether the bystander claims themselves are valid.

The sole question centers on what the term bodily injury in Pekin’s policy encompasses. More specifically, the question is whether an injury resulting from emotional distress is recoverable as a bodily injury under the policy when the person sustaining such injury was in no way externally touched by the vehicle. If the answer is yes, then the $100,000 remaining of the $300,000 per occurrence underinsurance [510]*510coverage limits is available to satisfy Hope’s and Aubrey’s bystander claims.

Another way of putting the question is whether the bystander claims are subject to the “per person” limitation or to the “per occurrence” limitation of the underin-sured provisions of the policy. If the latter, then the amount remaining of the per occurrence limits is available to satisfy the bystander claims.

The relevant policy language in the un-derinsured portion of the Pekin policy provides:

[Coverage]
We will pay damages which an “insured” is legally entitled to recover from the owner or operator of an “underinsured motor vehicle” because of bodily injury:
1. Sustained by an “insured;” and
2. Caused by an accident.
[Limit of Liability for Underinsurance Coverage]
The limit of liability shown in the Declarations for each person [$100,000] for Underinsured Motorists Coverage is our maximum limit of liability for all damages, including damages for care, loss of service or death, arising out of “bodily injury” sustained by any one person in any one accident. Subject to this limit for each person, the limit of liability shown in the Declarations for each accident [$300,000] for Underinsured Motorists Coverage is our maximum limit of liability for all damages for “bodily injury” resulting from any one accident.

(Emphasis added.)

Bodily injury is defined in the definitional provisions of the policy. The term is there defined as “bodily harm, sickness or disease, including death that results.”

Pekin relies heavily on two cases: Lepic v. Iowa Mutual Insurance Co., 402 N.W.2d 758 (Iowa 1987) and Dahlke v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 451 N.W.2d 813 (Iowa 1990).

In Lepic — a consolidated appeal of two cases having a common issue — the plaintiffs sought to recover for loss of consortium regarding their children under the per occurrence limits ($300,000) of their under-insured coverage. We limited their recoveries to the $100,000 per person limits of the underinsured coverage provisions which, among other things, provided:

The limit of liability ... for “each person” for Underinsured Motorists Coverage is our maximum limit of liability for all damages for bodily injury sustained by any one person in any one accident.

Lepic, 402 N.W.2d at 760 (emphasis added). We did so on the theory that loss of consortium is not a separate bodily injury for purposes of this policy language. Id. at 763. We recognized that our previous cases had viewed loss of consortium as an injury personal to the spouse or parent deprived of his or her spouse’s or child’s consortium. Id. Following the lead of the majority of jurisdictions, we were, moreover, unwilling “to extend this line of reasoning to declare that loss of consortium is a bodily injury to the deprived spouse or parent.” Id. We were persuaded by the rationale that loss of consortium damages are a direct consequence of and dependent upon the underlying bodily injury suffered by the injured spouse or child. Id. at 763-65.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
501 N.W.2d 508, 1993 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 161, 1993 WL 209069, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pekin-insurance-co-v-hugh-iowa-1993.