Benalli v. First National Insurance Co. of America

7 Navajo Rptr. 329, 1 Am. Tribal Law 498
CourtNavajo Nation Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1998
DocketNo. SC-CV-45-96
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 7 Navajo Rptr. 329 (Benalli v. First National Insurance Co. of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Navajo Nation Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Benalli v. First National Insurance Co. of America, 7 Navajo Rptr. 329, 1 Am. Tribal Law 498 (navajo 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion delivered by

YAZZIE, Chief Justice.

This appeal is from an October 16, 1996 order of the Window Rock District Court which granted Plaintiff/Appellee Eulynda Benalli’s motion for summary judgment. We review the order de novo because in the appeal of a summary judgment, this Court is in the same position as the trial court in reviewing the submitted record to decide whether there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Both parties assert that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

I

On June 10,1993, between 10:03 and 10:30 a.m., Eulynda Benalli (“Benalli”) was driving a 1992 Dodge van to make home visits to the residences of Canoncito youths who would participate in a scheduled “LaLuz Trail Hike.” Canoncito is in the New Mexico portion of the Navajo Nation. She drove north on Navajo Route 56, to approximately a mile and a half south of the Canoncito School. While the van was going down a hill, a 1975 Ford pickup truck driven by Edison Largo Sr. crossed the center line and hit the van head-on. The accident report shows that there were twelve passengers in the van. Largo was killed and Benalli and five children were injured. Benalli’s injuries exceeded the $60,000 uninsured motorist coverage on the van, and she received a pro rata share of that [330]*330amount with the injured children. Largo and Benalli are Navajos and the accident happened within Navajo Indian Country. Largo and his vehicle were not insured.

The Canoncito Community School Board of Education, Inc. (“Board”) is a New Mexico nonprofit corporation which has a contract (“P.L. 93-638” contract) with the Bureau of Indian Affairs under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. The contract permits the Board to lease property from the federal General Services Administration (“GSA”), which requires the Board to carry insurance on its equipment, including the van.

On June 3, 1992, the Board signed a letter agreement with the Center for Indian Youth Program Development of the University of New Mexico Department of Pediatrics to “assist the efforts” of the Center’s Canoncito Wilderness Discovery Program. The Board agreed to provide “at cost” a “GSA 12 passenger van” for $180.00 per month plus $0.165 per mile and “$167.42 a month for full insurance coverage.” The Board sent the Center statements that billed for the insurance coverage. In later years, including 1993, the Board and the Center used the letter agreement to continue the Canoncito Wilderness Discovery Program by oral agreement.

The Board wanted certainty that Benalli, as the driver of the van, had insurance coverage. The letter agreement requires “full” coverage. Although not required by the insurance policy, the insurer required the Board to periodically report the names and driver’s license status of its drivers. On July 7, 1992, Cam Pfeiffer, the Board’s Operations Manager, asked the insurance agent to “add full coverage” on the GSA van and to “add to our driver list Ms. Eulynda T. Benalli,” giving Benalli’s date of birth, license number, and license class.

There is some confusion about Benalli’s relationship to the Board. According to Pfeiffer, Benalli was a staff member of the Canoncito Community School (which is separate from the Board) and the director of the “Canoncito Wilderness Challenge [Discovery] Program” sponsored by the University of New Mexico. She was a tenured teacher at the school and carried out the Wilderness Discovery Program during the summer. She implemented the program and transported children home after activities.

According to Patricia Cormiclc, “an insurance person” from Albuquerque, there was no time limit for coverage based upon the names of drivers submitted by the Board, and Cormiclc would not “delete a driver” unless “Pfeiffer or someone from Canoncito asked me to delete a driver.” According to Charles Dwyer, of the Insurance Exchange (the insurance agent), “designation as a driver would last... forever.” The insurance agent did not “take names on and off.”

While the Board did not employ Benalli, she performed functions the Board supported for the benefit of Canoncito school children. This is a joint venture, and the Board clearly desired that Benalli have full insurance coverage under the Board’s policy while driving its van. The ultimate issue is what that coverage happened to be.

We set forth the actual terms of the insurance policy and discuss their inter[331]*331pretations below. The insurer, which was the defendant below, is the First National Insurance Company of America (“First National”). Insurance Exchange, the insurance agent, issued a certificate of insurance which shows that insurance coverage is by the Safeco Insurance Company (“Safeco”) and Millers Group Insurance Company. We are asked to construe the policy issued by Safeco, which has several standard forms as part of the insurance contract.

The “Business Auto Coverage Form” states as follows: “Throughout this policy the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ refer to the Named Insured shown in the Declarations.” Words in each form are highlighted by quotation marks to refer the reader to specific definitions. Therefore, we know that ‘you’ means the Board. It is a New Mexico nonprofit corporation engaged in the business of education, and it decided to “assist the efforts” of the Canoncito Wilderness Discovery Program by providing the van, at cost, and also providing “full insurance coverage” under the Safeco policy.

The coverage in the Business Auto Coverage Form is as follows: “We will pay all sums an ‘insured’ legally must pay as damages because of ‘bodily injury’ or ‘property damage’ to which this insurance applies, caused by an ‘accident’ and resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of a covered vehicle.” This is obviously liability coverage and not an uninsured motorist provision.

The form then tells us “[w]ho is an Insured”:

The following are ‘insureds’:
A. You for any covered ‘auto.’
B. Anyone else while using with your permission a covered ‘auto’ you own, hire or borrow except:....

The exceptions, or exclusions, are those from whom the insured hires or borrows the “auto,” an employee if that “auto” is owned by the employee or a member of his or her household, someone using the “auto” while working on it, those who are moving property to or from an “auto,” or a partner who owns the “auto.” These exclusions do not apply here. The third class of “insured” is “[ajnyone liable for the conduct of an ‘insured’ described above but only to the extent of that liability.”

Among the exclusions from the policy are “[liability assumed under any contract or agreement, but the exclusion does not apply to liability for damages under an ‘insured contract.’” The most closely applicable classification under the “insured contract” definition is as follows:

That part of any other contract or agreement pertaining to your business (including an indemnification of a municipality in connection with work performed for a municipality) under which you assume the tort liability of another to pay for ‘bodily injury’ or ‘property damage’ to a third party or organization. Tort liability means a liability that would be imposed by law in the absence of any contract or agreement.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 Navajo Rptr. 329, 1 Am. Tribal Law 498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benalli-v-first-national-insurance-co-of-america-navajo-1998.