Allstate Insurance v. Taylor ( 1969 )

Opinion by Me.

Justice O’Brien,

Appellant, Robert W. W. Taylor, suffered personal injuries in a motor vehicle accident which occurred on March 11, 1966. The other party involved in the accident was one Joseph Kovacs, who, it subsequently developed, was an uninsured motorist. Appellant was therefore unable to satisfy his alleged damages by an action of trespass. At the time of the accident, appellee, Allstate Insurance Company, was the insurer on a policy of automobile liability insurance purchased by Walter W. Taylor, appellant’s father. Walter W. Taylor resided in Torrance, California. Appellant, at the time of the accident was a student at Lehigh University in Northampton County, the County in which the accident occurred. Included among the coverages of the senior Taylor’s insurance policy was protection against uninsured motorists. The policy provides coverage to the “named insured” and “any person designated, as named insured in the schedule and, while a resident of the same household, the spouse of any such named insured and relatives of either.” Appellant made application to appellee under the uninsured motorist provision of his father’s insurance policy and coverage was denied on the ground that appellant was not a resident of the same household as the named insured, his father. Appellant then, in accordance with the provisions of the policy, made a demand for arbitration. Appellee filed a petition for declaratory judgment, seeking a determination of appellant’s status as a member or nonmember of his father’s household, and further seeking to restrain appellant from proceeding with arbitration. By subsequent stipulation of the parties, the arbitration was stayed pending an adjudication in the declaratory judgment action, jurisdiction of which was entertained by the court below.

Appellant, who was born in April of 1940, had reached the age of nearly 26 years by the time the accident occurred. He had attended the University of Southern California and subsequent to his graduation from that institution obtained a Fellowship for graduate work at Yale University. He studied at Yale from 1961 until he earned his Masters Degree from that institution in 1964. He then came to Lehigh University to commence work on his Doctorate. While at Lehigh he taught part-time and received a stipend for his support. All of these facts were contained in the petition for declaratory judgment and developed by the testimony. Appellant contended throughout that his student status and partial support by his parents made him a continuing resident in the household of his father. The court below concluded that appellant was not a resident of the same household as his father and entered a decree so holding from which this appeal is taken.

We need not and will not reach the merits of the dispute between the parties relative to the status of appellant under his father’s uninsured motorist coverage. Despite the stipulation of the parties, the court below should not have entertained a declaratory judgment action. The dispute between the parties having arisen under the uninsured motorist provision of the policy should have been settled by arbitration. The policy in question is no different from others which we have previously interpreted. Its terms provide, with respect to the uninsured motorist provision’s arbitration clause: “If any person making claim hereunder and the company do not agree that such person is legally entitled to recover damages from the owner or operator of an uninsured automobile because of bodily injury to the insured, or do not agree as to the amount of payment which may be owing under this endorsement, then, upon written demand of either, the matter or matters upon which such person and the company do not agree shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the rules of the American Arbitration Association. . ^ .” (Emphasis added). From this language, appellee concludes, and so states in its petition for declaratory judgment, “that the issues [sic] of coverage under the existing policy of insurance issued to Walter W. Taylor is not a proper issue for arbitration under the insuring agreement. [Appellee] further avers that the insuring agreement provides that the only issues capable of submission to arbitration under the insuring agreement are the question of liability for damages and the amount of the alleged damages.”

In defense of the parties, it should be pointed out that the petition for declaratory judgment as well as the stipulation of counsel were filed prior to the announcement of our decision in Nat. Grange M. Ins. Co. v. Kuhn, 428 Pa. 179, 236 A. 2d 758 on January 3, 1968. In that case, interpreting an identical arbitration clause of uninsured motorist coverage, and considering the same argument as to the scope of the arbitration, we held that all disputes between the parties arising under the uninsured motorist coverage should be decided by arbitration. We held that the phrase “matter or matters” was broad enough to indicate that the parties intended determination of all questions arising under the uninsured motorist coverage be by arbitration. We there refused to read court proceedings into the agreement to arbitrate, and determined that the arbitrator was competent to decide the question of whether the tortfeasor was or was not an uninsured motorist. Since that time, we have had other occasions to speak to the same subject. In Harley smile Mutual Ins. Co. v. Medycki, 431 Pa. 67, 244 A. 2d 655 (1968), we reaffirmed our position that all disputes arising under the uninsured motorist coverage are covered by the arbitration agreement. In that case, we held that the arbitrator and not a court should determine whether the insured had or had not forfeited his uninsured motorist coverage by virtue of alleged noncompliance with certain policy provisions. Most recently, in Merchants Mutual Ins. Co. v. DiUmberto, 433 Pa. 250, 248 A. 2d 842 (1969), we followed Kuhn and Medycki, holding that the arbitrator, rather than the court, should decide the applicability or nonapplicability of a two year statute of limitations in an uninsured motorist situation.

The case at Bar is no different from Medycki, Kuhn or DiUmberto and there is no basis for a departure from our refusal to allow the arbitration provision of uninsured motorist coverage to be ignored, thereby requiring the courts to determine questions which the parties have agreed to submit to arbitration for determination. We will no more read court proceedings into the arbitration clause in the instant case than we did in Kuhn, Medycki and DiUmberto.

The decree of the court below is vacated, and the case is remanded with directions to dismiss the petition for declaratory judgment.

Mr. Justice Eagen concurs in the result.