Clark v. Scarpelli

Summary

The Ohio Supreme Court addresses the meaning of “amounts available for payment” under R.C. 3937.18(A)(2), holding that underinsured motorist setoffs are based on amounts actually accessible to and recoverable by the claimant from the tortfeasor’s liability coverage. The court also considers whether an insurance policy may consolidate multiple wrongful-death beneficiary claims into a single per-person limit under R.C. 3937.18(H).

Holdings

1. For purposes of setoff, "amounts available for payment" means the amounts actually accessible to and recoverable by an underinsured motorist claimant from all applicable bodily-injury liability bonds and insurance policies, including the tortfeasor's liability carrier. The statute therefore requires comparison of the amount actually available to the claimant with the claimant's underinsured motorist limits, not a strict comparison of policy limits.
2. The Mid-Century policy clearly and unambiguously limited all wrongful-death claims arising from Shane Parker's death to the single $100,000 each-person policy limit.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the phrase "amounts available for payment" in former R.C. 3937.18(A)(2), as amended by S.B. 20, requires an actual-amounts-accessible comparison rather than a policy-limits-to-policy-limits comparison for purposes of reducing underinsured motorist coverage.
2. Whether the Mid-Century policy clearly and unambiguously limited all wrongful-death claims arising from Shane Parker's death to the single $100,000 each-person underinsured motorist limit.

Disposition

affirmed