Carolina Production Maintenance, Inc. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

425 S.E.2d 39, 310 S.C. 32, 1992 S.C. LEXIS 267
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedNovember 16, 1992
Docket1893
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 425 S.E.2d 39 (Carolina Production Maintenance, Inc. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carolina Production Maintenance, Inc. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 425 S.E.2d 39, 310 S.C. 32, 1992 S.C. LEXIS 267 (S.C. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

Goolsby, Judge:

Carolina Production Maintenance, Inc. (CPM), brought suit against United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company (USF & G) for payment of a loss under its business liability policy and, alternatively, against McNeill-Patterson (McNeill), its insurance agent, for negligence in obtaining the policy if coverage were held not to exist. The trial court granted both USF & G and McNeill summary judgment. CPM appeals. Address *34 ing the questions of coverage, negligence, and contributory negligence, we reverse the grant of summary judgment to USF & G but affirm the grant of summary judgment to Mc-Neill.

We first outline the relevant facts. In doing so, we have viewed the evidence reflected in the record in the light most favorable to CPM. Main v. Corley, 281 S.C. 525, 316 S.E. (2d) 406 (1984).

CPM assumed a contract with Phillips Driscopipe, Inc., under which CPM was to provide routine maintenance and limited operation of a grinding machine owned by Phillips and located on the premises of Phillips’ plant. Phillips would also operate the machine. The contract required CPM to provide employees for the undertaking. These employees, however, would be controlled by Phillips’ supervisors while on Phillips’ premises.

Because the contract also required CPM to obtain a certificate of insurance, CPM’s president, Willie Viverette, contacted Bob Horton of McNeill and explained to Horton what CPM would be doing at Phillips. He also told Horton that CPM needed a $1,000,000 policy. Viverette left to Horton the question of what the policy should contain.

Horton thereafter submitted an “accord” form to USF & G to obtain a classification for CPM’s operation and to determine ifUSF&G would supply the coverage. USF & G later agreed to provide the coverage and issued the policy.

The policy contains the following exclusions:

j. “Property damage” to:
(4) Personal property in your care, custody or control;
(6) That particular part of any property that must be restored, repaired or replaced because “your work” was incorrectly performed on it.

The policy does not define the term “personal property”; however, it does define the term “your work” as:

a. Work or operations performed by you or on your be *35 half; and
b. Materials, parts or equipment furnished in connection with such work or operations.
“Your work” includes warranties or representations made at any time with respect to the fitness, quality, durability or performance of any of the items included in a. or b. above.

Phillips used the grinding machine to grind industrial plastic waste for reuse in its manufacturing process. The contract assumed by CPM required CPM to inspect, remove, and replace certain grinding blades. On June 26, 1989, a CPM employee improperly reinstalled a set of blades in the grinding machine. The blades came loose and caused $41,000 worth of damage to the blades as well as to parts of the grinding machine not covered by the maintenance agreement.

CPM notified McNeill of the accident and McNeill submitted a claim to USF & G. After USF & G interviewed Viverette, USF & G denied coverage based on the “care, custody or control” exclusion of its policy.

This action followed. CPM claimed the policy covered all damaged parts except the blades it changed and, if the policy did not cover those parts, McNeill had negligently failed to obtain proper coverage for CPM.

USF & G and McNeill answered, denying the allegations of CPM’s complaint. USF & G also raised defenses based on policy exclusions and McNeill also alleged CPM was contributorily negligent.

USF & G and McNeill later took Viverette’s and his wife’s depositions. In his deposition, Viverette stated he did not read the policy obtained from USF & G by McNeill for CPM. Viverette’s wife, CPM’s secretary, testified in her deposition that she did not read the policy either.

Both USF & G and McNeill moved for summary judgment.

The trial court granted USF & G summary judgment based on the ground that, because the grinding machine “was a necessary part of [CPM’s] work” and fell within CPM’s “care, custody or control,” exclusion j(4) excluded coverage of the property damage in question. It also based the grant of summary judgment to USF & G on the ground that exclusion j(6), the “particular part” exclusion, applied to exclude coverage for the entire grinding machine and not just for the blades.

*36 The trial court granted McNeill summary judgment on the ground that McNeill was not negligent because the care, custody or control exclusion contained in the USF & G policy was standard and McNeill could not have obtained a policy without the exclusion. The trial court also based its decision on its finding that CPM was contributorily negligent as a matter of law in failing to read the policy.

I.

In this case, there is no real dispute as to the actual events leading up to the loss. There are, however, significant and material differences as to what the facts mean and whether those facts place the occurrence within either or both of the policy exclusions; hence, the grant of summary judgment to USF & G was improper. “Summary judgment should not be granted even when there is no dispute as to the evidentiary facts if there is dispute as to the conclusion to be drawn from those facts.” Baugus v. Wessinger, 303 S.C. 412, 415, 401 S.E. (2d) 169, 171 (1991).

CPM alleges the grinding machine was not within its “care, custody or control,” but rather was within the care, custody and control of Phillips.

We think there is a genuine issue of material fact concerning whether the grinding machine was indeed under the “care, custody or control” of CPM. See Gibson v. Glens Falls Ins. Co., 241 S.C. 293, 128 S.E. (2d) 157 (1962) (a swimming pool at a private residence was not under the “care, custody or control” of a contractor whose employees left the pool to drain overnight; therefore, the contractor’s insurer improperly denied coverage for damages sustained when the pool shifted out of its foundation because of hydrostatic pressure while it was draining); Royal Indemnity Co. v. T.B. Smith, 121 Ga. App. 272; 173 S.E. (2d) 738 (1970) (where a contractor was hired to paint the exterior of a steel tank and the interior radial sweeper arm was damaged when a catwalk was moved in the wrong direction, there was not sufficient care, custody or control of the damaged item to warrant exclusion).

As the South Carolina Supreme Court noted in Gibson, the application of “care, custody or control” exclusions is “dependent largely upon the facts and circumstances of each case.” *37 Gibson, 241 S.C. at 298, 128 S.E. (2d) at 159.

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Bluebook (online)
425 S.E.2d 39, 310 S.C. 32, 1992 S.C. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carolina-production-maintenance-inc-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-scctapp-1992.