Allstate Insurance v. Urban

146 N.E.2d 387, 15 Ill. App. 2d 386
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 31, 1957
DocketGen. 11,054
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 146 N.E.2d 387 (Allstate Insurance v. Urban) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance v. Urban, 146 N.E.2d 387, 15 Ill. App. 2d 386 (Ill. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE CROW

delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff, The Allstate Insurance Company, filed a declaratory judgment action against the defendant Century Indemnity Company, the defendant Stephan Urban, tbe defendants Tony DeSanto and Eobert Urban, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop, and tbe defendant Lois Davis, individually, and as Executor of tbe Estate of Harold W. Davis, deceased, for a judicial declaration that tbe plaintiff’s liability under an automobile liability insurance policy issued by it to tbe defendant Stephan Urban on bis 1950 Chevrolet is secondary and excess, and that tbe defendant Century Indemnity Company is primarily liable under a garage liability insurance policy issued by it to tbe defendants Tony DeSanto and Eobert Urban, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop, for tbe alleged tortious act of tbe defendant Stephan Urban while driving a 1949 Mercury which resulted, August 22, 1954, in injuries to tbe defendant Lois Davis, individually, and in tbe alleged wrongful death of her decedent, Harold W. Davis. Tbe action was tried without a jury. During tbe course of tbe suit tbe defendant Stephan Urban, and tbe defendants Tony DeSanto and Eobert Urban, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop were dismissed. Tbe defendant Century Indemnity Company answered, and, we gather, tbe defendant Lois Davis, etc. answered. In any event no questions are raised on tbe pleadings and tbe real controversy here is between tbe plaintiff insurer, Tbe Allstate, and tbe defendant insurer, Century.

Tbe court at first found tbe issues in favor of tbe defendant, Century Indemnity Company, and declared and adjudged it was not tbe primary insurer of Stephan Urban. A post trial motion of tbe plaintiff for judgment notwithstanding tbe finding was granted, however, and a final judgment was entered declaring that Stephan Urban was covered by tbe garage liability policy issued by tbe defendant Century to tbe Highland Bump Shop, and that such coverage was primary, and that tbe coverage of tbe plaintiff, Tbe Allstate’s, automobile liability insurance policy was excess or secondary. Tbe court further found in its final order that at the time of the collision between the 1949 Mercury in charge of Robert Urban and Tony DeSanto, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop, and operated by Stephan Urban, and the motor vehicle operated by Harold W. Davis, Stephan Urban was using the 1949 Mercury with the permission of and as one of the customers of Robert Urban and Tony DeSanto, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop, and that its use by him was in direct connection with the business operation of the Highland Bump Shop, being in accordance with a common custom and usage of such business in building-good will and maintaining satisfactory customer relationships and that such use was such as to create coverage of Stephan Urban by the defendant Century under its garage liability policy issued to Anthony DeSanto and Robert Urban, d/b/a Highland Bump Shop.

The defendant Century Indemnity Company appeals from that final judgment, urging that its garage liability policy issued to the Highland Bump Shop was a limited policy, which would have provided coverage for Stephan Urban only in the event that Stephan Urban had been using the borrowed automobile at the time of the accident for a business purpose connected with the repair shop operations of the named insured, Highland Bump Shop; that the uncontradicted evidence shows that Stephan Urban was on a pleasure mission of his own at the time of the accident, and, therefore, the trial court erred in finding that the Century Indemnity Company policy covered the liability of Stephan Urban.

The theory of the plaintiff The Allstate Insurance Company (and the defendant Lois Davis etc.) is that the 1949 Mercury operated by Stephan Urban was in the charge and possession of the Highland Bump Shop, was loaned to Stephan Urban as a substitute vehicle while his 1950 Chevrolet was undergoing repairs at the Highland Bump Shop, in accordance with the usual custom of the business, that both the 1949 Mercury and its operator Stephan Urban were thereby brought under the garage liability insurance policy of Century, and that the plaintiff The Allstate under its automobile liability insurance policy on Stephan Urban’s 1950 Chevrolet thereby became an excess or secondary insurance carrier.

Stephan Urban owned, a 1950 Chevrolet automobile, which at the material times in 1954 was insured with the plaintiff, The Allstate Insurance Company, under an automobile liability policy. That policy provided, inter alia, that:

“. . . ‘Substitute automobile’ means an automobile not owned by the named insured but temporarily used as the substitute for the owned automobile while withdrawn from normal use because of its breakdown, repair, servicing, loss or destruction.” . . . “With respect to a substitute automobile . . . Coverages A and B shall be excess insurance over any other collectible liability insurance of any kind available to the insured, . . . .”

There is no dispute as to the 1949 Mercury being a “substitute automobile” under that policy and as to the liability of The Allstate thereunder, but its argument is that, under the circumstances, the insurance of the defendant Century under its garage liability policy is “other collectible liability insurance — available to the insured,” Stephan Urban, and, hence, under the circumstances, the coverage under The Allstate policy is “excess insurance” over the coverage under the Century policy.

Robert Urban and Tony DeSanto were partners and proprietors of the Highland Bump Shop. They had had the 1950 Chevrolet at the shop, it apparently having been left there by the prior owner, in a wrecked or damaged condition. Stephan Urban, Robert’s father, gave him some money to buy it; DeSanto acquired it and an endorsed certificate of title from the prior owner; he delivered that certificate to Stephan, who later obtained a certificate of title in his name; Stephan gave Robert some more money for certain parts, which he acquired; Robert was doing the repair work on it himself mostly in the late afternoons or Saturday afternoons, without charge for the labor; the money for the purchase of the car and parts went through the firm’s books; DeSanto knew what Robert was doing.

While his Chevrolet automobile, so acquired, was undergoing such repairs August 22, 1954 and for a while before then at the Highland Bump Shop, at Highland Park, Stephan Urban drove, for a time, a 1949 Mercury automobile which had been loaned him by the Highland Bump Shop. The shop had previously let him use a truck belonging to it, and then one day when he had stopped to see if his Chevrolet was ready they told him about the 1949 Mercury, which they said he could use until his Chevrolet was ready, and the Mercury was turned over to him in place of the truck. He had used the Mercury for about a week before the accident in question, for his own purposes. The 1949 Mercury was not owned by the Highland Bump Shop, but had previously been left with the shop in May by a woman owner who lived in Highland Park, with the understanding that the shop would perform some body repairs and repainting on it while she was traveling in Europe, and that it would be ready for her when she returned in September. That owner of the 1949 Mercury had not given the Highland Bump Shop any authority to loan it to Stephan Urban or anyone else. It was not used as a regular “loaner” by the shop.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
146 N.E.2d 387, 15 Ill. App. 2d 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-v-urban-illappct-1957.