Chung Mi Ahn v. Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co.

Opinion of the Court by

McKENNA, J.

I. SUMMARY

In Wilson v. AIG Hawaii Ins. Co., 89 Hawai'i 45, 50-51, 968 P.2d 647, 652-53 (1998), we held that unless an insurer’s nonpayment of personal injury protection (PIP) benefits 2 jeopardizes an insured’s ability to reach the minimum amount of medical expenses required to file a tort lawsuit, 3 insureds are not “real parties in interest” allowed to pursue lawsuits seeking payment of PIP benefits to providers. Although a statute expressly gave insureds the right to seek court review of PIP denials, we concluded that insureds do not have legal rights…