Barnhill v. Standard Insurance Co.

386 S.W.2d 584, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2865
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 30, 1964
DocketNo. 5639
StatusPublished

This text of 386 S.W.2d 584 (Barnhill v. Standard Insurance Co.) 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
Barnhill v. Standard Insurance Co., 386 S.W.2d 584, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2865 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

FRASER, Chief Justice.

Our former opinion in this case is withdrawn, and the following opinion substituted therefor:

OPINION

This is a controversy regarding the construction of an insurance policy described by the parties as being an M & C liability policy, purporting to insure the payment of obligations of appellant Barnhill involving his operations as a truckman, or trucker, who owned his own truck and had been doing occasional work, described as hauling, for one of the parties, to-wit, M & B, for more than a year. Appellee Standard Insurance Company had written two insurance policies for the insured, one described as an automobile policy, and the other being the above-mentioned M & C liability policy.

The record relates that Cities Service Oil Company owned an oil well in Schleicher County, Texas which they desired to clean out and make into a disposal well. For this purpose they hired Pool Well Servicing Company, Inc. Cities Service also hired a company known as M & B to furnish the fishing service which was required in order to remove certain objects from the well. [585]*585M & B, in turn, hired Barnhill, the trucker, to pick up and deliver to the well site certain equipment and fishing tools, and this Barn-hill did. Barnhill met a Mr. Simpson, an employee of M & B, at Big Lake, Texas and followed him to the lease or well site. After Mr. Barnhill had unloaded the tools under the direction of Mr. Simpson (described as M & B’s fisherman), in which endeavor he was assisted by the rig crew, he prepared to return to his home in Odessa, which appears to be the only office or premises of any kind that he owned, operated or used for his business purposes. As he was maneuvering his truck to leave the well site, a part of his truck caught on a guy wire attached to the derrick, and the derrick and pipe stacked therein all fell over. It does not seem to be disputed that the action of Barnhill’s truck in catching the guy wire of the derrick caused the derrick and stacks of pipe therein to fall to the ground and be damaged. Pool recovered judgment in Schleicher County for $27,500.00 against Barnhill, but recovered nothing against the M & B Company, which he had also sued as a defendant.

Appellee Standard Insurance Company paid off the automobile policy of $10,000.00, but declined payment of any amount under the M & C policy of liability. This was a suit for declaratory judgment filed by ap-pellee Standard Insurance Company against Barnhill and Pool asking the court to interpret the M & C insurance contract. M & B Fishing Tool Company intervened in the suit. Standard, M & B and Barnhill filed motions for summary judgments. Upon motion made and heard, the trial court issued an order of severance eliminating the M & B Company and the cross-action of Mr. Barnhill from this lawsuit, and designated or placed them in the category of a separate lawsuit, leaving the lawsuit with which we are here concerned described as No. B-19,-739, and the new lawsuit, involving M & B and Barnhill’s cross-action, described as No. B-22,549.

It appears generally agreed between the parties that we are here concerned with the construction and application of a clause or paragraph of the M & C liability contract, sometimes described as an exclusionary clause. The policy states as follows:

“EXCLUSIONS:
“This policy does not apply:
“(a) under division 1 of the Definition of Hazards, and under coverage Cr to the ownership, maintenance, operation, use, loading or unloading of (1) watercraft if the accident occurs away from premises owned by, rented to or controlled by the named insured, except insofar as this part of this exclusion is stated in the declarations to be inapplicable, (2) automobiles if the accident occurs away from such premises or the ways immediately adjoining, or (3) aircraft; * *

It is argued by the appellants that Barnhill was in control of or exercising control of the premises at the time his truck caught the guy wire and pulled the derrick and pipe down. If this is true, then — argue the appellants — the exclusionary clause above set forth does not apply, and appellee is liable under its M & C liability policy; and so we come to the question then clearly set forth: Was Barnhill in control, or exercising control, of the premises to any degree sufficient to satisfy the terms of the policy under which he was insured by Standard Insurance Company?

As stated in appellants’ brief, all parties filed for declaratory judgments and for summary judgments as well. The court granted the motion of Standard Insurance Company for such summary judgment to exclude the accident from coverage under the M & C policy; and it is from this action of the trial court that this appeal has been taken.

Appellants have brought up three points; first, that the premises where the rig was wrecked were “controlled” by appellant Barnhill within the meaning of the M & C liability policy; second, that the “premises” covered by the M & C liability policy included the job sites in Texas on which appellant Barnhill made deliveries in the operation of [586]*586'his truck. Appellants state the automobile exclusion applied to other coverage only. Appellants’ third point is that M & B was entitled to be a party to and participate in the case before us, even though the trial court had severed M & B and set its action up as a separate lawsuit.

We believe the action of the trial court was correct. Both parties refer to and rely upon American Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Traders & General Ins. Co., 160 Tex. 554, 334 S.W.2d 772, decided by our Supreme Court in December of 1959 and reconsidered, and a motion for rehearing denied, in March of 1960. In this case it is stated that appellee denied liability under an M & C policy on account of provisions, among others, reading as follows:

“'(This policy does not apply:) under Coverages B and D, except with respect to operations performed by independent contractors, to watercraft while away from premises owned, rented, or controlled by the Named Insured, automobiles while away from such premises or the ways immediately adjoining * *.’ ”

This, in effect, is similar to the so-called exclusionary provisions of the case before us. The Supreme Court in the cited case was considerably concerned with the question of control, and states that it found no case which it regarded as being directly in point, but did mention others that the court felt supported its opinion or conclusion. In such case it is significant to note that the insured, known as the Mizell Truck Lines, was being operated at the time by one Roy Mizell, one of the brothers comprising the company. They had two trucks at the well site, and their task was to move and stack various component parts of the superstructures of the rig to new locations. The Supreme Court states: “All of the activities other than the mechanical dismantling of the rig itself were under the direction of Roy Mi-zell. He determined how the trucks were to be used, where the components of the rig were to be stacked, and supervised both the loading and the unloading of the trucks.” The Court then states that it considers this to be sufficient to establish “control” under the terms of the insurance policy. The Court went on to say:

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386 S.W.2d 584, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2865, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnhill-v-standard-insurance-co-texapp-1964.