Boode v. Allied Mutual Insurance Company

458 P.2d 653, 1969 Wyo. LEXIS 157
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 16, 1969
Docket3728
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 458 P.2d 653 (Boode v. Allied Mutual Insurance Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boode v. Allied Mutual Insurance Company, 458 P.2d 653, 1969 Wyo. LEXIS 157 (Wyo. 1969).

Opinions

Mr. Justice PARKER

delivered the opinion of the court.

Although the initial circumstances giving rise to this litigation — the injury of a motor vehicle passenger and financial responsibility for the damage suffered — are routine and similar to those frequently encountered, the procedures and responses here employed by the parties to solve those problems, including two intertwined actions with a subsequent garnishment and numerous ramifications, are unusual and somewhat confusing. Consequently, it is desirable that the factual and the procedural aspects be viewed separately as well as in dual perspective.

THE FACTS AND PROBLEMS

On the night of Saturday, November 25, 1961, Lorna Boode was seriously injured in a one-car crash on Highway 14 between Ucross and Sheridan, while riding in an automobile owned and driven by Jack Wolfe, a lawyer for whom she worked as legal secretary, Mondays through Fridays. At the time of the accident, the two were returning to their respective homes after having gone to Ucross, some twenty-nine miles from Sheridan that day in Wolfe’s car, he having left his car there and proceeded some thirty-one miles further to Arvada in the vehicle belonging to a prospective purchaser of a drilling rig from an estate represented by Wolfe, having thereafter returned to Wolfe’s car in Ucross and in it the two having gone approximately two and a half miles to his mother’s ranch, there negotiating with each other regarding his purchase of a horse from plaintiff; and then having returned to the highway and being en route home. The evidence presented no challenge of Mrs. Boode’s testimony as to the driver’s negligence, her injuries, or the extent thereof, and these are not here in issue.

THE PROCEDURES

While the present appeal relates directly only to the judgment arising from the garnishment proceedings, it grows out of and is affected by many occurrences surrounding and subsequent to the accident and particularly to the actions and filings in the court.

Shortly after the accident, the Allied Mutual Insurance Company filed a Form SR 21 (Notice of Policy Under Section 5 of Wyoming Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act), and about that time requested a statement from Wolfe concerning the circumstances surrounding the crash, which he gave in the form of a letter to insurer’s counsel. Thereafter he wrote them again stating, “If the company still refuses to pay this claim, I think we should dispense with any fictitious suit of Mrs. Boode against me and proceed with a declaratory judgment with a jury to determine the facts here in issue.”

About two years later, Mrs. Boode filed a complaint in tort (No. 14256) in the District Court of Sheridan County against Wolfe, claiming damages, which complaint was answered by counsel for the insurance company with a general denial and a further defense that plaintiff was at the time of the accident a guest of Wolfe.

Simultaneously, the insurance company filed a declaratory judgment action (No. 14284) against Mrs. Boode and Wolfe, alleging the occurrence of the accident and the institution of the tort suit. It asserted that Wolfe had “tendered to this * * * Company * * * the defense of that litigation under the terms and provisions of the * * * insurance issued by this plaintiff to defendant Jack Wolfe,” contended that under the facts and circumstances of the accident the company’s policy was not effective for Mrs. Boode because of the exception in Part I, paragraph (e) of the exclusions, and requested that the tort action be stayed until the matter should be determined in the declaratory judgment suit.

Mrs. Boode filed a separate answer, asserting that the complaint did not state a claim upon which the relief prayed for could be granted, denied that there was a justiciable controversy between plaintiff and herself and alleged affirmatively that the in[656]*656surance company by reason of having accepted the defense of Wolfe in the tort suit was estopped from contending that it owed him no defense therein.

Wolfe answered, denied generally, alleged that no justiciable controversy was presented by the complaint, which failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted, asserted that he had complied with the provisions of his policy and further that the issues raised in the declaratory action complaint were the same as those in the tort action.1

Pretrial order in the declaratory judgment action recited among other things the stipulation and agreement between counsel for the respective parties that:

1. The issues therein were whether or not (a) Mrs. Boode was an employee of Wolfe at the time of the accident and (b) plaintiff was estopped to deny that it had a duty to defend Wolfe; and

2. Any and all evidence in that case might be admitted in the tort action if the same were tried.

The court in compliance with a motion of the insurance company dismissed its action against Mrs. Boode without prejudice. Subsequently the court proceeded with the trial of the declaratory judgment action against Wolfe, at the conclusion of which a judgment was entered dismissing the complaint.

Some two years later the court proceeded with trial in the tort action and on August 19, 1966, entered findings of fact that the primary purpose and object of the trip at the outset and at the time of the accident was to consummate legal business for and on behalf of Wolfe, that Mrs. Boode accompanied him for the purpose of assisting him in that object, was acting in the capacity of legal secretary and therefore as an employee or servant of defendant at the time of the accident; that the side trip off the highway to the ranch for the purpose of inspecting and purchasing a horse was incidental to the trip, was terminated when the car driven by the defendant arrived back at the main highway and the trip was resumed to Sheridan, and at the time of the accident the primary purpose of the trip had been renewed; and that the defendant had been negligent in various respects. It entered conclusions of law that defendant’s negligence had been the cause of the accident and the injuries to plaintiff and that plaintiff as an employee of defendant was a passenger in the automobile and not a guest — giving her judgment and permitting proof of her damage at a separate trial. Shortly thereafter the two attorneys for the insurance company who had been acting in defense of Wolfe moved the court for permission to withdraw as counsel. Wolfe filed objections to the motion but the court did not act thereon, calling attention to that fact in its later judgment.

Subsequently, the court proceeded with the damage aspect of the trial in the tort action and entered judgment awarding Mrs. Boode $10,249.69. She appealed the judgment, objecting to the findings of the trial court that at the time of the accident she was engaged in her duties as an employee of defendant, but was refused relief. Boode v. Wolfe, Wyo., 430 P.2d 119.

Immediately following the mandate affirming the judgment, Mrs. Boode proceeded with garnishment against the insurance company, which answered, denying any indebtedness under the policy.

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Boode v. Allied Mutual Insurance Company
458 P.2d 653 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1969)

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Bluebook (online)
458 P.2d 653, 1969 Wyo. LEXIS 157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boode-v-allied-mutual-insurance-company-wyo-1969.