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Levine v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.3/8/2004
Reporter of Decisions
Submitted On Briefs: June 26, 2003
Majority: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, DANA, ALEXANDER, and LEVY, JJ.
Dissent: RUDMAN and CALKINS, JJ.
We are called upon here to determine whether Maine's uninsured/underinsured vehicle coverage laws require underinsured vehicle policies to supplant available tortfeasor insurance coverage that is not timely sought by the injured insured. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company appeals from a judgment entered in the Superior Court (Kennebec County, Marden, J.) concluding that Nicole Levine, who was injured by the driver of an underinsured vehicle, was entitled to recover from State Farm, the underinsured vehicle insurance carrier of the driver in whose vehicle she was riding, when the coverage held by the tortfeasor became unavailable to Levine because of the passage of time before she filed her claim. It is undisputed that the tortfeasor's coverage was less than the State Farm policy limits and that State Farm is responsible for that amount of underinsurance. Because we conclude that State Farm is only liable for the amount by which the State Farm coverage exceeded the insurance held by the tortfeasor, we vacate the judgment.
I. BACKGROUND
In August 1992, Nicole Levine, a passenger in a motor vehicle operated by Michael Fisher, was injured when a vehicle negligently operated by William Kruzynski collided head-on with Fisher's automobile, causing Levine damages later determined by a jury to total $100,000.
At the time that Kruzynski injured Levine, he was insured through a North East Insurance Company policy, which provided liability coverage of $50,000 per person. Fisher and Levine were each insured by Fisher's State Farm policy, which contained a provision for uninsured/underinsured vehicle coverage in the amount of $100,000 per person. Levine was also insured by a Prudential Property and Casualty Insurance Company policy, which provided uninsured/underinsured vehicle coverage in the amount of $100,000 per person. Coverage under that policy is not at issue here.
Kruzynski died approximately one year after the accident and no probate proceedings were filed concerning his estate until March 1999, nearly six years after his death, when Levine filed a petition for formal adjudication of intestacy and appointment of a personal representative. In her petition, Levine requested that the court appoint her, as a creditor, to serve as personal representative of Kruzynski's estate. The Probate Court dismissed Levine's petition, holding that the three-year limit for commencing probate proceedings had expired, and she was therefore barred from obtaining relief for her injuries from Kruzynski or his estate.
On January 18, 2001, more than eight years after the accident, Levine filed a direct cause of action against State Farm and Prudential, seeking recovery for the damages resulting from the 1992 automobile accident pursuant to each company's underinsured vehicle coverage. The parties have never disputed that Kruzynski's vehicle qualified as an "uninsured motor vehicle" pursuant to the State Farm policy because the $50,000 bodily injury liability limit contained in his policy with North East was less than the $100,000 uninsured/underinsured vehicle limit Fisher carried in his policy with State Farm. Moreover, Kruzynski's negligence undisputedly caused the motor vehicle accident and, as a result, Levine was "legally entitled" to collect damages from him. Thus, the sole issue presented at the jury trial held in the Superior Court concerned the amount of Levine's total damages resulting from the accident, which the jury calculated to be
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