U.S. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Estate of Ward

2019 MT 72, 444 P.3d 381, 395 Mont. 199
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 26, 2019
DocketOP 18-0373
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 2019 MT 72 (U.S. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Estate of Ward) 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
U.S. Specialty Ins. Co. v. Estate of Ward, 2019 MT 72, 444 P.3d 381, 395 Mont. 199 (Mo. 2019).

Opinions

Justice Beth Baker delivered the Opinion of the Court.

***202¶1 The United States District Court for the District of Montana certified a question to this Court to address the Estate of Darrell L. Ward's third-party claim to stacked liability limits in an aircraft insurance policy that covered multiple aircraft. We accepted the question and have reformulated it pursuant to M. R. App. P. 15(4) as follows:

Is the Estate of Darrell L. Ward entitled to stack the limits of liability coverage for three separate aircraft under the terms of an insurance policy issued to the pilot of an aircraft in which Ward was a passenger at the time it crashed?

¶2 We conclude that the answer to the reformulated question is no.

PROCEDURAL AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

¶3 Mark Melotz was piloting his aircraft, FAA Number N9936T, with Darrell Ward as a passenger. The plane crashed, and both Melotz and Ward were killed. At the time of *383the accident, Melotz insured N9936T and two other aircraft under one insurance policy issued by U.S. Specialty Insurance Company ("USSIC"). Melotz paid a separate premium for each aircraft.

¶4 The policy's applicable coverage provision provides as follows:

1. What We Cover
We will pay damages you , and anyone we protect, are legally required to pay for bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence during the policy period.
...
e. Coverage DL covers bodily injury to passengers and others and property damage in a combined limit of liability for each occurrence which includes a lower limit for each passenger .
The most we will pay for bodily injury to each passenger is shown in item 6DL opposite "each person". The most we will pay for all bodily injury and property damage is shown in item 6DL opposite "each occurrence".

The policy identifies each aircraft on the coverage identification page in item 6 with a $100,000 limit for "each person," and a $1,000,000 limit for "each occurrence," as follows:

***203?

The policy defines an "occurrence" as "a sudden event ... involving the aircraft during the policy period, neither expected nor intended by you , that causes bodily injury ."

¶5 Following Ward's death, USSIC paid Ward's Estate $100,000-the per-passenger limit for bodily injury claims involving N9936T. The Estate argued that it was entitled to stack the coverage of each aircraft's per-passenger limit, for a total of $300,000. USSIC filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the District of Montana, seeking a declaration that it was under no duty or obligation to pay more than $100,000 to Ward's Estate under the terms of the policy and that USSIC's aircraft policy coverage for passengers cannot be stacked. The Estate and USSIC submitted cross-motions for summary judgment. The U.S. District Court certified to this Court the question of stacking insurance coverage limits in aviation cases.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶6 M. R. App. P. 15(3) permits this Court to answer a question of law certified to it by another qualifying court. Our review of a certified question is "purely an interpretation of the law as applied to the agreed facts underlying the action." N. Pac. Ins. Co. v. Stucky , 2014 MT 299, ¶ 18, 377 Mont. 25, 338 P.3d 56 (internal citation omitted).

DISCUSSION

¶7 The interpretation of an insurance contract is a question of law. Fisher v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. , 2013 MT 208, ¶ 11, 371 Mont. 147, 305 P.3d 861. General rules of contract law apply to insurance policies. Kilby Butte Colony, Inc. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. , 2017 MT 246, ¶ 10, 389 Mont. 48, 403 P.3d 664. "When interpreting an insurance contract, we accord the usual meaning to the terms and the words used, and we construe them using common sense." Fisher , ¶ 13 (citing Modroo v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co. , 2008 MT 275, ¶ 23, 345 Mont. 262, 191 P.3d 389 ). An insurance contract is ambiguous if it is "reasonably subject to two ***204different interpretations." Fisher , ¶ 15 (internal citations omitted). Whether a provision of an insurance contract is "reasonably susceptible to two different interpretations" is determined from *384"the viewpoint of a consumer with average intelligence, but untrained in the law or insurance business." Fisher , ¶ 15 (internal citations omitted). A provision is not ambiguous "just because a claimant says so or just because the parties disagree as to [its] meaning." Fisher , ¶ 15 (internal citations omitted).

¶8 The USSIC policy provides coverage in a "combined limit of liability for each occurrence which includes a lower limit for each passenger ." The Coverages and Limits of Liability table states, "The most we will pay under each coverage we provide is shown below for each aircraft." The policy defines aircraft as the aircraft shown on the Coverage Identification Page of the policy, where N9936T and two other aircraft are listed. The limit of liability for each aircraft is $100,000 for each passenger, up to a combined limit of $1,000,000 for each occurrence. An occurrence is a "sudden event ... involving the aircraft ... that causes bodily injury

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2019 MT 72, 444 P.3d 381, 395 Mont. 199, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/us-specialty-ins-co-v-estate-of-ward-mont-2019.