Tucker v. Farmers Insurance Exchange

2009 MT 247, 215 P.3d 1, 351 Mont. 448
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 22, 2009
DocketDA 08-0083
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 2009 MT 247 (Tucker v. Farmers Insurance Exchange) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tucker v. Farmers Insurance Exchange, 2009 MT 247, 215 P.3d 1, 351 Mont. 448 (Mo. 2009).

Opinions

JUSTICE MORRIS

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 Farmer’s Insurance Exchange (FIE) appeals from a jury award of $516,000 in wrongful death damages to Patsy Ann Tucker (Tucker) in the Fourth Judicial District Court, Missoula County. The court also awarded attorney fees, costs, and accrued interest. We affirm.

¶2 FIE presents the following issues for review:

¶3 Whether the District Court properly denied FIE’s motion for a directed verdict on Tucker’s underinsured motorist (UIM) claim for wrongful death damages.

¶4 Whether the District Court properly applied Idaho law in determining the wrongful death damages.

¶5 Whether the District Court correctly denied collateral source offsets from Tucker’s wrongful death damages award.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The Accident

¶6 Tucker is a co-personal representative of the estate of her daughter, Cathryn Claire Rose Tucker (Cady Tucker). Cady Tucker, age 11, died on August 15,2002, following an automobile accident that took place north of Seeley Lake on Montana Highway 83. Cady Tucker lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho, with her mother and her mother’s husband, Robert Starr (Starr), at the time of the accident. Cady Tucker’s biological father is John Hoctor (Hoctor). Hoctor is a co-personal representative of Cady Tucker’s estate.

¶7 Cady Tucker rode in the front seat of a vehicle owned and operated by Robert Cushman (Cushman), a Montana resident. Jamie Robbins (Robbins), Cady Tucker’s cousin, rode in the backseat of Cushman’s vehicle. Janie McNair (McNair), also a Montana resident, negligently drove her vehicle over the centerline and collided head-on with Cushman’s vehicle. Cushman and Robbins suffered serious injuries. Cady Tucker died from her injuries after living an appreciable amount of time.

[450]*450Insurance Coverage

¶8 Safeco insured Cushman under two separate policies with UIM limits of $100,000 per person and $300,000 per accident. Safeco agreed to stack the policies and paid $200,000 to Tucker and Hoctor in equal shares of $100,000. All parties agreed that these monies constituted survivorship damages under Montana law. Tucker and Hoctor divided the survivorship damages in accordance with the succession laws of Montana.

¶9 State Farm insured McNair for liability coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. McNair collided with two separate vehicles in this accident. McNair’s negligence caused the death of Cady Tucker and caused severe injuries to Cushman, Robbins, and three passengers in the vehicle trailing Cushman’s vehicle. State Farm admitted to McNair’s negligence. As a result, State Farm provided additional coverage of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. State Farm divided its $100,000 limit among the injured parties, including Cady Tucker’s heirs, with a $50,000 per person limitation. State Farm paid survivorship damages in the amount of $35,625 to Tucker and Hoctor in equal shares of $17,812.50.

¶10 Tucker and Hoctor agreed that the Safeco and State Farm monies constituted survivorship damages and thus split these amounts equally as co-personal representatives of Cady Tucker’s estate. They further agreed that any money damages received in the future would not be divided equally as Tucker had provided a vast majority of Cady Tucker’s financial support and care.

¶11 Starr had purchased two UIM policies that insured Tucker and Cady Tucker. The first policy, Farmers Insurance Company of Idaho (FICI), insured them for $250,000 per person. The FICI policy contained a provision that Idaho law governed the contract. Consistent with Idaho law, the FICI policy contained a mandatory arbitration provision. The second policy, FIE, insured both Tucker and Cady Tucker for $1,000,000 per occurrence. Starr had purchased the FIE policy to provide excess coverage above the FICI policy. The FIE policy contained no choice of law provision and no arbitration provision.

¶12 Tucker initially demanded the $250,000 policy limit in UIM coverage from FICI. John Evers (Evers), a general adjuster for FICI and FIE, initially informed Tucker that policy exclusions in both the FICI and FIE policies barred coverage. Evers later confirmed the insurer’s intent, however, to address the UIM claims under both policies. Evers opined that coverage would be subject to an offset of the amount recovered from the tortfeasor and benefits received from [451]*451Cushman’s UIM coverage. Tucker detailed the damages that had been incurred from Cady Tucker’s death and demanded that FICI and FIE pay the entire limit of $1,500,000 to the co-personal representatives of Cady Tucker’s estate.

Idaho Court Proceedings

¶13 FICI responded by filing a complaint in Bannock County, Idaho, on March 13,2003, that sought to compel arbitration of the UIM claim. FIE joined the complaint five days later. Three days later, on March 21,2003, Tucker and Hoctor filed a complaint in Montana that sought damages against McNair for negligence and asserted UIM claims against FICI and FIE. FICI and FIE filed motions to dismiss the Montana action. The District Court dismissed the Montana action on June 23, 2003, based on comity and the fact that the Idaho court was considering the question of whether the insurance policies compelled arbitration. The Idaho district court interpreted the insurance contracts and granted FICI’s motion to compel arbitration as its insurance policy contained an express arbitration clause. The Idaho district court denied FIE’s motion to compel arbitration as its insurance policy did not contain an arbitration clause.

¶14 Tucker settled her claim with FICI after providing FICI with evidence that Cady Tucker had lived an appreciable time after the accident. Tucker and Hoctor agreed to discharge their UIM claim against FICI under Idaho law for the $250,000 policy limit. Hoctor received $70,000 and Tucker received $180,000. The parties did not apportion this settlement between survivorship damages and wrongful death damages. The Idaho district court dismissed this portion of the case with prejudice on December 29, 2003.

¶15 Tucker and Hoctor filed a second complaint in Montana on September 2, 2003, that sought damages against FIE. FIE moved to dismiss the second Montana action on June 30, 2004. The Montana court declined to rule on the dismissal motion and stayed the action pending resolution of the Idaho proceedings.

¶16 FIE sought leave to file an amended complaint for declaratory relief in the Idaho action on November 10, 2003. FIE sought a declaratory judgment to determine whether Tucker and Hoctor could recover under the FIE’s UIM coverage and the amount of such recovery. The Idaho district court allowed FIE leave to amend its complaint in order to pursue a declaratory judgment ‘to determine whether FIE must pay [damages] and to whom it must pay the damages.” The court refused, however, to allow FIE to determine in such action ‘the amount of damages [Tucker and Hoctor] may seek [452]*452from FIE in a wrongful death action and/or breach of contract action.” ¶17 FIE appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court. The Idaho Supreme Court agreed that no authority supported FIE’s efforts to maintain a declaratory judgment action to determine damages when a wrongful death and survivorship action was pending in Montana to address the identical issue. Farmers Ins. Exchange v. Tucker, 125 P.3d 1067

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 MT 247, 215 P.3d 1, 351 Mont. 448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tucker-v-farmers-insurance-exchange-mont-2009.