 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Piersa v. Phoenix Insurance Co.5/10/2005
Ins. Co. v. DelGreco, 205 Conn. 178, 185, 530 A.2d 171 (1987); the court's analysis of the legislative history is dictum." Boynton v. New Haven, supra, 63 Conn. App. 826 n.20. The flaw in this reasoning of the Appellate Court is that the scope of judicial review of legal issues arising in the course of uninsured motorist arbitral awards is not limited, as in the usual case of arbitral awards, but is plenary because the arbitration is considered to be compulsory, rather than voluntary. Chmielewski v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., supra, 218 Conn. 658-59. Thus, in Malec, this court correctly stated the law regarding the relationship of parity between liability and uninsured motorist coverage in the course of de novo review of legal issues, contrary to the Appellate Court's characterization of that discussion.
In this connection, we acknowledge the conclusion of the Appellate Court in Boynton that the city was not required to document in writing its intent to avail itself of the statutory minimum of uninsured motorist coverage, because that "would have required the city, wearing its hat as insured, to file a written request with itself, wearing its hat as insurer," a requirement that the court considered to be "untenable." Boynton v. New Haven, supra, 63 Conn. App. 828. We disagree, however, that that conclusion controls the present case.
In that passage, the court was referring to the provisions of § 38a-336 (a) (2), and not the provision at issue in the present case, namely, § 38a-334-6 of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies. Section 38a-336 (a) (2) provides that, despite the general requirement of parity between liability and uninsured motorist coverage, an insurer could provide less uninsured motorist coverage if "any named insured requests in writing a lesser amount, but not less than the limits specified in subsection (a) of section 14-112. . . ." We do not disagree with the Appellate Court that applying that provision literally in the self-insurance context would be counterintuitive, because that provision is a notice provision requiring informed consent by the insured. Section 38a-334-6 of the regulations, however, is not such a notice provision; it is a provision that specifies the basic requirement of how an insurer--self or commercial--may limit its liability. It is neither untenable nor counterintuitive to require a self-insurer to file a written document to accomplish that purpose so as to achieve a rough equivalence to a commercial insurer.
We are also not persuaded by the defendant's reliance on Serra v. West Haven, supra, 77 Conn. App. 267, because that decision relied principally on Boynton. In Serra, the plaintiff, again a police officer injured by an underinsured motorist, claimed that the self-insured defendant city had elected more than the minimum required coverage because it had purchased an excess liability policy with a self-insured retention of $50,000. Id., 269-70. The Appellate Court rejected this claim based on its prior decision in Boynton. The court stated: "Although the present case is distinguishable because West Haven is not a fully self-insured municipality and, therefore, its liability would not be unlimited, we conclude that this difference is not controlling and the reasoning of Boynton applies. The fact that West Haven has a $50,000 self-insured retention policy does not remove the presumption that a self-insured municipality elects the statutory minimum amount of coverage in the absence of a writing to the commissioner stating otherwise." Id., 273.
The defendant's final argument is that uninsured motorist requirements are construed from the perspective of municipal self-insurers rather than from the perspective of the cla
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Connecticut Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|