Countryway Insurance v. Slaugenhoup

360 F. App'x 348
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJanuary 7, 2010
DocketNo. 08-1677
StatusPublished

This text of 360 F. App'x 348 (Countryway Insurance v. Slaugenhoup) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Countryway Insurance v. Slaugenhoup, 360 F. App'x 348 (3d Cir. 2010).

Opinions

[349]*349OPINION

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

In this declaratory judgment action, the District Court held that appellant Coun-tryway Insurance Co. (“Countryway”) had a duty to defend its insured, Paul Slaugen-houp, in a negligence lawsuit brought by Dustin C. Sams (“Sams”) against Paul and his father, Walter Slaugenhoup.1 Coun-tryway appeals. We will reverse.

I.

Paul Slaugenhoup was the owner of a farmowner’s insurance policy issued by Countryway. His policy provided personal liability coverage, under which Country-way agreed to defend Paul in lawsuits seeking damages for bodily injury or property damage, provided that coverage was not otherwise excluded by the policy.

Paul and his father Walter were joint owners of a combine used on the Slaugen-houp farm. On July 17, 2006, Paul and Walter set out to repair a tire on their combine. Paul removed the tire, loaded it onto Walter’s pickup truck, and told his father to “go get her fixed.” Walter was 93 years old, had a history of glaucoma, and was not wearing his glasses despite a driver’s license requirement that he wear corrective lenses when operating a motor vehicle. As Walter drove to get the tire fixed, his vehicle collided with Sams’s vehicle. Sams was severely injured.

Through his guardian, Sams filed a two-count complaint against the Slaugenhoups in the Court of Common Pleas for Clarion County, Pennsylvania. Count I alleged that Walter operated his motor vehicle negligently. Count II alleged that Paul was negligent under § 302 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts, whieh provides that “an act or an omission may be negligent if the actor realizes or should realize that it involves an unreasonable risk of harm to another through the negligent or reckless conduct of the other or a third person.” According to Sams, Paul was negligent when he placed the tire in Walter’s pickup truck and asked Walter to transport the tire for repair, knowing that his father was incapable of driving safely.

On November 21, 2007, Countryway filed a declaratory judgment action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.2 Countryway sought a declaration that it had no duty to defend or indemnify Paul in the negligence action brought by Sams, because Exclusion 1(f) of Paul’s policy excluded coverage for that claim. The District Court held that Countryway had a duty to defend Paul under the policy, and granted summary judgment for the Slaugenhoups and Sams. Countryway filed this timely appeal.3

II.

This Court exercises plenary review over the District Court’s grant of summary judgment. Camiolo v. State Farm, 334 F.3d 345, 354 (3d Cir.2003). Furthermore, the interpretation of an insurance exclusion is a question of law, over which this Court exercises plenary review. Canal Ins. Co. v. Underwriters at Lloyd’s London, 435 F.3d 431, 434 (3d Cir.2006). The parties agree that Pennsylvania substantive law applies.

[350]*350III.

Paul Slaugenhoup’s policy provided personal liability coverage (“coverage L”), subject to certain exclusions. Exclusion 1(f), the only exclusion at issue in this appeal, states that coverage L does not apply to:

“bodily injury” or “property damage” which results from liability imposed by law on an “insured” for the use of a “motorized vehicle,” aircraft, or watercraft, except if coverage is provided for by an Incidental Motorized Vehicle or Watercraft Coverage.4

The District Court found this exclusion ambiguous, and therefore interpreted it in favor of coverage. The District Court offered three reasons for its conclusion that Exclusion 1(f) was ambiguous. First, it thought it unclear whether Paul “used” the pickup truck involved in the accident, since he neither owned nor operated it at any time relevant to the accident. Second, the District Court believed that the policy was unclear as to whose “use” of a vehicle would trigger the exclusion, and whether the exclusion applied in cases of vehicle use by anyone other than the insured. Third, the District Court distinguished Exclusion 1(f) from the exclusions in other cases in which Pennsylvania courts had applied motor vehicle exclusions in general liability policies. See Wilcha v. Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 887 A.2d 1254 (Pa.Super.Ct.2005); Erie Ins. Exch. v. Transamerica Ins. Co., 352 Pa.Super. 78, 507 A.2d 389 (1986); Pulleyn v. Cavalier Ins. Corp., 351 Pa.Super. 347, 505 A.2d 1016 (1986). The Court pointed out that the exclusions applied in Wilcha, Erie, and Pulleyn excluded coverage for bodily injury “arising from” or “arising out of’ motor vehicle use, while the Countryway exclusion contained no such “arising from” language. The District Court held that the absence of such language contributed to the policy’s ambiguity.

The District Court was correct that under Pennsylvania law, ambiguities in an insurance policy are to be construed against the insurer. 401 Fourth St., Inc. v. Investors Ins. Group., 583 Pa. 445, 879 A.2d 166, 171 (2005). That rule is inapplicable here, however, because Exclusion 1(f) is not ambiguous.

The District Court erred in asking as a threshold question whether Paul Slaugen-houp used a motor vehicle. The Court should have first asked whether the exclusion even required that the insured “use” the motorized vehicle. In our view, it does not. Exclusion 1(f) states that the policy does not provide coverage for bodily injury resulting from (1) liability imposed by law (2) on an insured (3) “for the use of a motorized vehicle.” All three of those requirements are met here. The Sams negligence action sought to (1) impose liability through law (2) on Paul, the insured (3) “for the use” of the pickup truck. The “use” in question, of course, was Walter’s use of his pickup truck to transport the tire, which resulted in the accident and without which Sams would have no claim against Paul. As Countryway notes, the operative word in the exclusion is “use.” Walter was using a motor vehicle when he struck and injured Sams, and that use was sufficient to trigger Exclusion 1(f). Nothing in the policy states that Exclusion 1(f) applies only to Paul’s use of a vehicle. Because there is no need to decide whether Paul used the pickup, one of the chief sources of ambiguity identified by the District Court vanishes.

The District Court correctly noted that “the policy language begs the question of [351]*351who must be using the vehicle in order for coverage to be excluded.” The Court thought that the policy’s failure to identify whose use of a vehicle would trigger the exclusion also suggested that the exclusion is ambiguous. We disagree.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Michigan Mutual Insurance v. Sunstrum
315 N.W.2d 154 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1981)
Hutchison v. Sunbeam Coal Corp.
519 A.2d 385 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
Bankert Ex Rel. Habush v. Threshermen's Mutual Ins.
329 N.W.2d 150 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1983)
Madison Construction Co. v. Harleysville Mutual Insurance
735 A.2d 100 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1999)
Wilcha v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Co.
887 A.2d 1254 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2005)
Pulleyn v. Cavalier Ins. Corp.
505 A.2d 1016 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
Erie Insurance Exchange v. Transamerica Insurance
507 A.2d 389 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1986)
401 Fourth Street, Inc. v. Investors Insurance Group
879 A.2d 166 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2005)
Hanson v. North Star Mutual Insurance
71 F. Supp. 2d 1007 (D. South Dakota, 1999)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
360 F. App'x 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/countryway-insurance-v-slaugenhoup-ca3-2010.