Tierney v. Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan

466 A.2d 168, 319 Pa. Super. 299, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3951
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 23, 1983
Docket3005
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 466 A.2d 168 (Tierney v. Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tierney v. Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan, 466 A.2d 168, 319 Pa. Super. 299, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3951 (Pa. 1983).

Opinions

HESTER, Judge:

Appellant, David Tierney, filed a Complaint in Equity in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County on August 7, 1981 to compel appellee, Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan, to assign his claim for benefits to a participating insurer under the Pennsylvania No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act 1, hereinafter “the Act”. Appellee’s Demurrer and Motion to Strike were duly considered and the trial court dismissed appellant’s Complaint with prejudice by an Order of Court, dated November 17, 1981. Appellant filed this timely appeal from said Order.

On August 17, 1980, appellant, a Pennsylvania resident, was a passenger in a motor vehicle operated by another Pennsylvania resident. The vehicle struck a public utility pole in New Jersey causing appellant to incur severe personal injuries. Appellant, and all other members of his household were uninsured under the Act. Additionally, the automobile was not a “secured vehicle” as that term is defined in 40 P.S. § 1009.103. As a result, appellant sought benefits under the Assigned Claims Plan provision of the Act. 40 P.S. § 1009.108. Appellee refused to assign the claim due to its opinion that appellant’s injuries were not compensable under the Act.

In response to an alleged need to circumvent the expensive, lengthy and cumbersome common law recourse of pursuing motor-vehicle accident claims in the courts, the Pennsylvania General Assembly enacted the Pennsylvania [304]*304No-Fault Motor Vehicle Insurance Act in 1974. It was designed with the purpose of providing a “low-cost, comprehensive and fair system”2 of compensating victims of motor vehicle accidents for damages in the nature of medical and rehabilitation expenses, work loss, replacement services and survivor’s losses.3 Since the Act’s effective date in July, 1975, “every owner of a motor vehicle which is registered or which is operated in this Commonwealth by the owner or with his permission” must secure the vehicle for the “payment of basic loss benefits” and for payment of statutorily-designated sums which the owner or authorized operator may be liable to pay as damages for personal injury to any one person and for property destruction. 40 P.S. § 1009.-104(a). Such security is generally provided through a contract of insurance, and in the event security is not provided by the owner, the registration is forfeited and operation of the vehicle is prohibited. 40 P.S. § 1009.104(b).

An “insured” is an individual who is a named insured in a contract of insurance containing terms in compliance with the Act, a spouse or relative of a named insured, a minor in the named insured’s custody or a minor in the custody of a relative of the named insured providing certain conditions are met. 40 P.S. § 1009.103. There is no dispute here with respect to appellant’s and the operator’s uninsured status; both failed to qualify as “insureds.”

Appellant contends that he is nevertheless entitled to no-fault benefits as an uninsured under the Assigned Claims Plan provision of the Act. As a victim of a motor vehicle accident, appellant may be entitled to basic benefits through the Assigned Claims Plan, providing “basic loss insurance is not applicable to the injury for a reason other than those specified in the provisions on ineligible claimants.” 40 P.S. § 1009.108(a)(1)(A). Failure to maintain security on an automobile involved in an accident appears to fall within this category provided by § 1009.108(a)(1)(A); [305]*305therefore, upon initial study, appellant qualifies for benefits under the Assigned Claims Plan. However, a victim’s eligibility for basic loss benefits, whether that eligibility is derived from his status as an “insured” or under the Assigned Claims Plan, is subject to restrictions when the accident resulting in injury to a Pennsylvania resident occurs outside the Commonwealth.

Section 1009.201(b) of the Act provides as follows:

Accident outside this State—If the accident resulting in injury occurs outside this Commonwealth, a victim or a survivor of a deceased victim is entitled to receive basic loss benefits if such victim was or is:
(1) an insured; or
(2) the driver or other occupant of a secured vehicle.

As noted earlier, appellant concedes that he was uninsured at the time of the accident; nevertheless, he contends that since the motor vehicle was secured he was not barred from compensation through the Assigned Claims Plan.

Appellant’s rationale here is imaginative, but erroneous. It is his position that § 1009.201(b) does not proscribe the payment of benefits to him due to his opinion that the Assigned Claims Plan provides the security for the vehicle within which he was injured. His statutory source for this theory is § 1009.204(a)(5), which ascribes to the Assigned Claims Plan the responsibility of supplying security for the payment of basic loss benefits to injuries sustained by an uninsured motorist while traveling in an otherwise unsecured vehicle.

We do not agree that the Assigned Claims Plan can elevate an otherwise uninsured vehicle to “secured” status. Section 1009.103 defines a “secured vehicle” as one “for which security is provided in accordance with Section 104 of the Act.” Section 1009.104 requires every owner of a motor vehicle to provide continuous security on such vehicle for so long as it is “either present or registered in the Commonwealth.” Security can be provided, according to § 1009.104, through a contract of insurance with an insurer, through self-insurance or “by qualifying ____ as an obligated [306]*306government.” Section 1009.104 does not denote the Assigned Claims Plan as an alternative means for “securing” a vehicle; consequently, we find that omission as evidence of the legislature’s intent to consider the procurement of a contract of insurance with an insurer or “by qualifying as a self-insurer or as an obligated government” as the only means of “securing” a vehicle. There is no ambiguity in § 1009.104; therefore, we must interpret that section according to the clear meaning of the words used therein. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1921(b).

Were we to subscribe to appellant’s view that § 1009.204(a)(5) designates the Assigned Claims Plan as another source of “securing” a vehicle, the otherwise unequivocal meaning of § 1009.201(b) would be muddled. Each section of a statute must be interpreted and applied with reference to the remaining sections. 1 Pa.C.S.A. § 1922; In Interest of Jones, 286 Pa.Super. 574, 429 A.2d 671 (1981); Crary Home v. Defrees, 16 Pa.Cmwlth. 181, 329 A.2d 874 (1974). Section 1009.204(a)(5) delineates the Assigned Claims Plan as one of the forms of securing for payment of basic loss benefits, yet § 1009.201(b)(1) refers to a “secured vehicle” as that term is defined in § 1009.103 and § 1009.104. Section 1009.204(a)(5) cannot then, in reference to § 1009.103, § 1009.104 and § 1009.201(b)(1), provide for security of a vehicle through the Assigned Claims Plan.

Appellant’s next contention is that appellee’s responsibility is to assign claims to a participating insurer. According to appellant, the plan is not authorized to refuse assignment when it questions the propriety of the claim.

Section 1009.108(b)(2) sets forth the Plan’s duties accordingly:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

McGilley v. Chubb & Son, Inc.
535 A.2d 1070 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1987)
Dailey v. Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan
44 Pa. D. & C.3d 633 (Northampton County Court of Common Pleas, 1987)
McMullin v. Dallago
510 A.2d 787 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
Harleysville Mutual Insurance v. Smith
507 A.2d 828 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
Gammelin v. Ostreicher
37 Pa. D. & C.3d 500 (Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas, 1985)
Recovery Services International v. Carr
33 Pa. D. & C.3d 326 (Mercer County Court of Common Pleas, 1984)
Tierney v. Pennsylvania Assigned Claims Plan
466 A.2d 168 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
466 A.2d 168, 319 Pa. Super. 299, 1983 Pa. Super. LEXIS 3951, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tierney-v-pennsylvania-assigned-claims-plan-pa-1983.