Severson v. Milwaukee Automobile Insurance

61 N.W.2d 872, 265 Wis. 488, 42 A.L.R. 2d 976, 1953 Wisc. LEXIS 388
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1953
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 61 N.W.2d 872 (Severson v. Milwaukee Automobile Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Severson v. Milwaukee Automobile Insurance, 61 N.W.2d 872, 265 Wis. 488, 42 A.L.R. 2d 976, 1953 Wisc. LEXIS 388 (Wis. 1953).

Opinion

BROadfoot, J.

The defendant devotes several pages in its brief to the law relative to the construction of contracts and contends that the insurance policy should be construed in the light of the intention of the parties as ascertained from the entire policy. It then contends that it was not its intention that medical expenses be paid twice to any injured person.

The plaintiff states that there is no ambiguity in the policy but that the different coverages afforded by the policy are divisible and severable. The plaintiff quotes from 44 C. J. S., Insurance; p. 1284, sec. 336, as follows:

“A policy of insurance purporting to be entire may in fact be divisible and severable. The question of divisibility or separability rests primarily on the intention of the parties deducible from the stipulations of the contract and the rules governing the ascertainment of that intention. Where a policy grouping several risks incident to the ownership and operation of motor vehicles, such as those of accidental bodily injury or death occasioned to the operator, loss or damage from accident or injury suffered by some person caused by the vehicle and for which the owner is liable, loss or damage to property caused by the motor vehicle, and loss or damage to the vehicle by fire, accident, burglary, or theft, its legal effect is not different from the legal effect of separate policies each against one of the grouped risks. . .

Our attention was not directed to any Wisconsin case involving the severability or divisibility of insurance contracts. However, we have found a few cases involving that question as they relate to fire insurance policies. One such case is Loomis v. Rockford Ins. Co. 77 Wis. 87, 45 N. W. 813. In that case the buildings and certain personal property situated on three different farms were insured against loss [491]*491by fire, each for a separate amount, by a policy stating the premium as a gross sum. One of the farms was sold and no report of the sale was made to the insurance company, in violation of the provision of the policy against changing the title to the insured property without the consent of the insurer. Another of the buildings was lost by fire. It was held that the contract was divisible and that the breach of contract as to one of the properties did not avoid the policy as to the remaining property. This case recognizes that separate coverages in one policy may be divisible and separable.

Medical-payment provisions in automobile insurance policies are relatively new and óur attention is called to no case directly in point. In 8 Appleman, Insurance Law and Practice, p. 312, sec. 4896, appears the following:

“Many automobile liability policies now contain the so-called medical indorsement. Under this provision, any passenger or occupant of the insured’s car who is injured in accident may recover medical expenses up to a stipulated amount, usually $500 per person. Since such recovery is completely independent of liability on the part of the insured, insurance under the medical-indorsement clause is closely akin to a personal-accident policy. Many companies, in view of their experience with the medical indorsement covering occupants of the insured automobile, have now extended the coverage of such clause to include the insured himself.”

Relevant provisions of the policy are as follows:

“Insuring Agreements.
“I. Coverage A — Bodily Injury Liability.
“To pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death at any time resulting therefrom, sustained by any person, caused by accident and arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use. of the automobile.
[492]*492“Coverage K — Medical Payments.
“To pay all reasonable expenses incurred within one year from the date of accident for necessary medical, surgical, ambulance, hospital, professional nursing, and funeral services, to or for each person who sustains bodily injury, sickness, or disease, caused by accident, while in or upon, entering or alighting from the automobile if the automobile is being used by the named insured or with his permission.
“II. Defense, Settlement, Supplementary Payments.
“(d) pay expenses incurred by the insured for such immediate medical and surgical relief to others as shall be imperative at the time of the accident;
“Exclusions.
“This policy does not apply:
“(b) under coverages A, B, and K, to liability assumed by the insured under any contract or agreement;
“(d) under coverages A and K, to bodily injury to or sickness, disease, or death of any employee of the insured while engaged in the employment, other than domestic, of the insured or in domestic employment if benefits therefor are either payable or required to be provided under any Workmen’s Compensation Law;
“Conditions.
“4. Limit of Liability — Coverage K.
“The limit of liability for medical payments stated in the declarations as applicable to ‘each person’ is the limit of the company’s liability for all expenses incurred by or on behalf of each person who sustains bodily injury, sickness, or disease, including death resulting therefrom, in any one accident. “10. . . . The company may pay the injured person or any person or organization rendering the services and such payment shall reduce the amount payable hereunder for such injury. Payment hereunder shall not constitute admission of liability of the insured, or, except hereunder, of the company.
“17. Subrogation — Coverages A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I.
“In the event of any payment under this policy, the company shall be subrogated to all the insured’s rights of recovery therefor against any person or organization and the [493]*493insured shall execute and deliver instruments and papers and do whatever else is necessary to secure such rights. The insured shall do nothing after loss to prejudice such rights.”

Louis C. Larson applied for a policy of insurance covering bodily-injury liability, property-damage liability, and medical payments. The defendant could have issued separate policies or it could have embraced the three coverages in one policy, but it chose to use a form of policy containing many other coverages, indicating therein which coverages applied and which did not apply. A separate premium was paid for the medical-payments coverage and the limits of liability were defined, the amount being $500 to each person under coverage K. Although contained in one policy, the coverages were divisible and separable, and coverage K must be construed as a separate contract. It is limited to the payment of reasonable expenses incurred within year from the date of the accident and the policy excludes payments under coverage K if the benefits thereunder are payable or required to be paid under any Workmen’s Compensation Law. Other than that, it is an absolute agreement to assume or pay the medical payments.

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Bluebook (online)
61 N.W.2d 872, 265 Wis. 488, 42 A.L.R. 2d 976, 1953 Wisc. LEXIS 388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/severson-v-milwaukee-automobile-insurance-wis-1953.