Walther v. Allstate Insurance

575 A.2d 339, 83 Md. App. 405, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJune 21, 1990
Docket1599, September Term, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 575 A.2d 339 (Walther v. Allstate Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walther v. Allstate Insurance, 575 A.2d 339, 83 Md. App. 405, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 112 (Md. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinions

GILBERT, Chief Judge.

This appeal arises from the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, wherein Judge William C. Miller ruled that Allstate Insurance Company, because of a household exclusionary clause, was not obligated to indemnify Charles and Barbara Walther for more than the statutory minimum provided in the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law.1

The single issue before us is whether, in the light of the Court of Appeals decision in Boblitz v. Boblitz, 296 Md. 242; 462 A.2d 506 (1983), declaring invalid interspousal immunity, the circuit court erred “in determining that the limit of liability for insurance coverage for claims by household members” is the amount “required by the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law.”

At the time of the incident for which claim is made, Charles and Barbara Walther were husband and wife. Mrs. [407]*407Walther was injured when she attempted to exit the car while her husband was simultaneously causing the vehicle to accelerate. The car door struck Mrs. Walther, injuring a femur, ankle, knee, and hip. Mr. Walther was insured by Allstate Insurance Company. His policy coverage was in the amount of $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence. Notwithstanding those policy limits, Allstate offered Mrs. Walther $20,000 in settlement of all claims, asserting that, with respect to her, that sum was the policy limit.

The limitation, Allstate says, is written into the insurance contract under what is commonly referred to as the “household clause.” That clause specifically excludes “bodily injury to any person related to an insured person by blood, marriage, or adoption and residing in that person's household, to the extent that the limits of liability for this coverage exceed the limits of liability required by the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law.” The Maryland Financial Responsibility Law, Md. Transp.Code Ann., § 17-103(b)(l), currently requires minimum insurance coverage in the amount of $20,000. Both parties moved for summary judgment. In a written opinion, Judge Miller concluded that the “household clause” limitation on liability for bodily injury does not violate public policy. Judge Miller ruled that the limit of liability insurance coverage, with respect to Mrs. Walther under her husband’s policy with Allstate, was $20,000.

Because Boblitz abolished interspousal immunity in negligence cases, the Walthers aver that the limitation on household claims imposed by the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law violates the public policy derived from Boblitz. The Walthers reason that the abrogation of inter-spousal immunity not only permits Mrs. Walther to sue her husband for all damages she sustained as a result of his negligence but to assert that because the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law prohibits them from recovering damages in excess of $20,000 it violates public policy. Overlooked by that simplistic argument is the fact that Mrs. Walther is not precluded from recovering damages from [408]*408her husband in excess of $20,000 but merely from obtaining more than $20,000 from her husband’s insurance carrier, Allstate. The Boblitz Court said:

“We share the view now held by the vast majority of American States that the interspousal immunity Rule is unsound in the circumstances of modern life in such cases as the subject. It is a vestige of the past. We are persuaded that the reasons asserted for its retention do not survive careful scrutiny. They furnish no reasonable basis for denial of recovery for tortious personal injury. We find no subsisting public policy that justifies retention of a judicially created immunity that would bar recovery for injured victims in such cases as the present.”

Boblitz, 296 Md. at 273, 462 A.2d 506 (citation omitted).

Subsequent to Boblitz, the Court decided Jennings v. Government Employees Ins., 302 Md. 352, 488 A.2d 166 (1985). There it was held that the “household exclusion” clause of GEICO’s insurance policy was invalid because it ran afoul of the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law. The GEICO policy sought to exclude household members from any recovery from the insurer. The Jennings Court stated that the denial of benefits to a household member was void as against public policy because the Maryland Financial Responsibility Law requires coverage of at least the legislatively mandated minimum amount.

Lest there be any doubt as to Jennings’ holding pertaining to the validity generally of “household exclusion clauses,” the Court in State Farm Mut. v. Nationwide Mut., et al., 307 Md. 631, 516 A.2d 586 (1986), held that the “household clause” of insurance policies was invalid only if the clause excluded less than the prescribed statutory minimal liability required by Md. Transp.Code Ann. § 17-103(b)(1).

Footnote 1 in State Farm clearly indicates that the Court was addressing a factual situation involving the exclusion of the insured, himself, as distinguished from members of his household. Nevertheless, the Court specifically rejected the holdings in Estep v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., [409]*409103 N.M. 105, 703 P.2d 882 (1985), Hughes v. State Farm Mut Auto. Ins. Co., 236 N.W.2d 870 (N.D.1975), and Meyer v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 689 P.2d 585 (Colo. 1984). All three of those cases declared totally invalid “household exclusion clauses” that prevented an injured wife from recovery under the policy.

Estep involved a widow’s claim, in a dual capacity, against her deceased husband’s automobile insurance carrier. The widow asserted a claim in her individual capacity as an injured party and in an official capacity as personal representative of the decedent’s estate. The New Mexico Supreme Court, in a 3-2 decision, upheld the widow’s claim, declaring all “household exclusions” void as against public policy.

Hughes was concerned with a claim by a wife arising from a snowmobile collision. Both the husband and wife were “named” insureds under the policy. At the time of the accident the wife was a passenger in the vehicle driven by her husband. The Hughes’s insurance carrier denied liability on the basis of the “household exclusion clause.” The North Dakota Court declared that the “household exclusion” provision was violative of public policy.

The Colorado Supreme Court in Meyer consolidated three appeals into one. One of the three cases, Aguine, also involved a husband and wife. The wife was injured as a result of a one car collision. She sued her husband. The Colorado Court in holding that the wife could recover under her husband’s policy struck down the “household exclusion clause.”

The fact that Estep, Hughes and Meyer were rejected by the Court of Appeals in State Farm v.

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Walther v. Allstate Insurance
575 A.2d 339 (Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
575 A.2d 339, 83 Md. App. 405, 1990 Md. App. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walther-v-allstate-insurance-mdctspecapp-1990.