By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire
2012 closed out with an important ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, dealing with delay damages in uninsured motorist benefit cases, in Marlette v. State Farm, decided on December 28, 2012.
The issue raised and resolved was, after a jury trial in an uninsured motorist benefits case, whether a Plaintiff was entitled to seek delay damages for the full amount of the jury’s verdict, or only for the reduced verdict, after the verdict was molded to the amount of available uninsured motorist benefits.
Analyzing delay damages under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure No. 238, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled, in an Opinion authored by Justice Todd, that delay damages can only be calculated on the amount of legally-recoverable damages that a Plaintiff would be able to recover following the verdict being molded for the available uninsured motorist benefits under the applicable policy.
Marlette involved the jury awarding $550,000.00 in favor of the Plaintiff, and $150,000.00 to the Plaintiff’s spouse on the loss of consortium claim.
Post-verdict, the Trial Court molded the award to the available policy limits of $250,000.00.
The Trial Court in AlleghenyCounty further molded the verdict to reflect a pre-trial payment by State Farm of $16,693.02.
Seeking delay damages, the Plaintiffs filed a post-verdict Motion, claiming that delay damages should be calculated on the jury’s gross award before it was molded downward by the Trial Court, for a net award based on the available uninsured motorist benefit provided by the policies with State Farm.
Awarding delay damages based on the molded net award, and not the jury’s gross verdict, the Plaintiff’s award, combining the molded jury verdict with the Trial Court’s assessment of delay damages, resulted in the Plaintiffs recovering more than the policy limits available under State Farm’s uninsured motorist benefits.
Appealed to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, the Superior Court ruled that the delay damages should have been calculated based on the jury’s gross award, and not on the molded net award.
The Superior Court also ruled that the Plaintiffs could recover damages greater than the policy limits for uninsured motorist protection maintained by the Plaintiffs with State Farm.
Thankfully, the Superior Court’s rulings have been reversed, with the Supreme Court holding that delay damages in uninsured motorist claims, are to be calculated based on the molded net award, and not on the jury’s gross award without consideration of the policy limits.
It also ruled that the Plaintiffs cannot recover damages in excess of the policy limits, when combining the molded jury verdict with delay damages. This is true because uninsured motorist law prohibits a Plaintiff from recovering an amount greater than the uninsured motorist policy limit.
Thankfully, reason has prevailed.
ConnorsLaw LLP
Trust us, we just get it!
It is trust well spent!
Defending liability-based lawsuits throughout Pennsylvania, on behalf of insurance carriers, third-party administrators, and self-insured businesses and corporations, our 100+ years of cumulative experience defending our clients against negligence and occurrence-based liabilities, empowers our Casualty Practice Trial Group attorneys to be entrusted to create the factual and legal leverage to expeditiously resolve lawsuits and claims, in the course of limiting/reducing/extinguishing our clients’ potential liabilities under Pennsylvania’s common law, trial practices, and rules of civil procedure.
With every member of our trial practice group being AV-rated, our partnership with the Pennsylvania Defense Institute and the Counsel on Litigation Management magnifies the lens through which our professional expertise imperiously demands that we remain dynamic and exacting advocates for our clients, the same being businesses, corporations, insurance carriers, seeking our trial and litigation acumen, to navigate the frustrating and liability-intensive minefield pervasive throughout Pennsylvania trial practice and procedure.
Questions concerning tort and/or contract liability that might arise in the context of casualty claims can be directed to Kevin L. Connors at [email protected] (Phone: 610-524-2100 Ext. 112).
