Allstate Insurance Company v. Zellars

452 S.W.2d 539, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2488
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 11, 1970
Docket6077
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 452 S.W.2d 539 (Allstate Insurance Company v. Zellars) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance Company v. Zellars, 452 S.W.2d 539, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2488 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

OPINION

WARD, Justice.

The appellee Charles H. Zellars instituted this declaratory judgment action against his insurer, Allstate Insurance Company, to determine his coverage on a family automobile liability insurance policy, and seeking a declarations that Allstate is obligated to defend and indemnify him from loss in a suit pending in Taylor County. The Taylor County suit is styled, “Bama Company vs. Charles H. Zellars and Humble Pipe Line Company”, and grew out of Zellars’ operation of a motor vehicle owned by the Humble Pipe Line Company. In the present suit Allstate also brought in Humble Pipe Line Company as a third party defendant seeking a declaration that said third party was obligated to defend the Taylor County suit and to pay any judgment that might be entered there against Zellars by virtue of Humble Pipe Line Company’s status as a self-insurer under Article 6701h, Vernon’s Ann.Texas Civil Statutes. Trial was to a jury, and at the close of the evidence the trial court granted an instructed verdict in favor of the third-party defendant, Humble Pipe Line Company. On jury issues favorable to Charles H. Zellars, judgment was entered against Allstate, affording the insured full coverage under the policy as to his defense in the Taylor County suit and indemnifying the said insured against any judgment that might be there rendered against him in accordance with the provisions of the policy. Allstate has perfected this appeal.

The first part of the controversy between Allstate and its insured, Zellars, concerns the interpretation of the non-owned automobile provision of the policy and whether or not the insured was engaged in a business or occupation at the time of the accident within the meaning of an exclusion clause of the policy.

The basic insuring clause of the policy is as follows:

“To pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of:
“B. Injury to or destruction of property, including loss of use thereof, hereinafter called 'property damage’; arising out of the * * * use of * * * non-owned automobile, and the company shall defend any suit alleging such bodily injury or property damage and seeking damages which are payable under the terms of this policy, * * * ”

The 158J amendatory endorsement to the policy provides, under Part I, that the following are insured:

“(b) with respect to a non-owned automobile,
(1) the named insured * * * provided the actual use * * * thereof is with the permission of the owner; * * *»

The policy defines “non-owned” automobile in these terms:

“ ‘non-owned automobile’ means an automobile or trailer not owned by or furnished for the regular use of either the named insured * * * ”

*542 The amendatory endorsement provides an exclusion applicable to the above coverage which states:

“This policy does not apply under Part I to a non-owned automobile while maintained or used by any person while such person is employed or otherwise engaged in * * * (2) Any * * * business or occupation of the insured, but this exclusion 2 does not apply to a private passenger automobile operated * * * by the named insured.”

The undisputed facts of the case are that Zellars, a swamper for Humble Pipe Line Company, was working under Henry Saf-fell, a truck driver for Humble, and they were ordered to drive on an out-of-town trip by their employer. These employees of Humble, on overnight trips, were paid by the hour until they stopped for the night and also were later reimbursed for the expense of their lodging and meals while on these trips. The two men drove a 2 and 1/2 ton tractor with a flatbed trailer attached, from Odessa to Abilene, where they unloaded some equipment. They then drove to Childress, where they spent the night. The next morning they secured another load of equipment and proceeded in their duties to drive the equipment to Houston. At approximately 6:30 P.M. they arrived in Abilene and checked into the Colonial Inn Motel. Mr. Zellars then took a nap until about 8:30 or 9:00 P.M., and when he awoke he discovered that Mr. Saffell had already eaten. Zellars then asked Saf-fell if he could use the truck to go and eat and was given permission to do so. He unhooked the trailer and was going to eat at a cafe on Highway 36, just outside of Abilene, as he did not like the food at the Colonial Inn, which was open when Zellars left. As he proceeded, he saw the American Legion Hall, stopped there, and played Bingo with an old friend until midnight. Thereafter, he went to his friend’s house in the Humble truck and remained there until about 1:30 A.M. He then left his friend’s house and proceeded out to the cafe, and on the way suffered a sneezing attack and collided with the truck owned by the Bama Company. Zellars remembers nothing of the accident. Thereafter, the Bama Company filed suit against Zellars and Humble Pipe Line Company for property damages to the truck with which Zel-lars collided, and it is out of that accident and suit that the present declaratory judgment suit was filed.

The dispute as to the interpretation of the policy arises from the manner of submission of a definition which was given by the trial court in connection with its Special Issue No. 2, which inquired of the jury as to whether Mr. Zellars was using the Humble Pipe Line Company truck in his business or occupation at the time of the accident in Abilene. The complained-of instruction given by the court in connection with this issue was as follows:

“You are instructed that by the term ‘using the Humble truck in his business or occupation’ is meant that the act was in the course and scope of Zellars’ employment for Humble. For an act to be in the course and scope of the servant’s employment, it is necessary that (1) it be done within the scope of the general authority of the servant, (2) in the furtherance of the master’s business, and (3) for the accomplishment of the object for which the servant is employed.”

The jury, in answer to the issue, replied that Zellars was not using the Humble truck in his business or occupation at the time of the accident. The appellant objected to the submission of the definition for the reasons that the definition had the effect of changing and re-writing the exclusion provision of the policy and was so restrictive as to dictate to the jury that it answer the issue favorably to Zellars.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
452 S.W.2d 539, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2488, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-company-v-zellars-texapp-1970.