Dunn v. Travelers Indemnity Co.

122 S.E.2d 518, 217 Ga. 426, 1961 Ga. LEXIS 478
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedOctober 24, 1961
Docket21316
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 122 S.E.2d 518 (Dunn v. Travelers Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunn v. Travelers Indemnity Co., 122 S.E.2d 518, 217 Ga. 426, 1961 Ga. LEXIS 478 (Ga. 1961).

Opinion

Grice, Justice.

The issue here is coverage under a policy of liability insurance, specifically, the use of the vehicle involved. It arose upon- a ■ suit-filed by an insurance company against its insured, an injured party, and the latter’s attorney, for-a declaratory judgment. The salient-events of the litigation may be recounted as follows.

Travelers Indemnity Company brought its petition in the Superior Court of Wilkes County against William C. Callaway, Daniel Lee Dunnj and Walton Hardin, seeking to- have the court declare and decree as follows: that an attached policy of insurance issued by the plaintiff to the defendant Callaway did not protect or afford liability coverage to- him while he was using one of his trucks insured thereunder in hauling for a concern other than Wilkes Construction Company and that the plaintiff was not liable to the defendant Dunn for any injuries which he may have sustained on June 9, 1958, in an accident involving súch truck when he was riding in it. The petition recited that the defendant Hardin was attorney for defendant Dunn in a suit for damages against the defendant Callaway, pending in the same court.

*427 In the policy above referred to, under the heading of “Declarations,” -Item 1 names the insured-and- recites- his occupation as “asphalt and gravel -hauler”-; Item 2 specifies the policy period and describes the vehicles insured; -and Item 4 gives the-types of insurance coverage,-limits of liability, and premium. Next, in Item 5, appear the printed words: “The purposes for which the automobile is to be used are” and in immediate connection is the typed statement: “CL-7CA-Hauls for one concern — Wilkes Construction Co.” To the right in the same Item 5 is printed: “(‘Pleasure and Business,’ unless otherwise stated herein; ‘C’ means ‘Commercial.’).”

Preceding the- portion of the policy headed- “Insuring Agreements” is the recitation that-the agreement is “in- reliance upon the statements in the declarations . . ’-’ Number 6 of the policy’s “Conditions” states: “Purpose of Use Defined . . .(b) the term ‘commercial’ is defined as use principally in the business occupation of the .'named insured as stated in .Item 1 [of the Declarations], including occasional use for personal, pleasure, family and other business purposes '-......” The last Condition recites that the issuance of the policy is in reliance upon the truth of the statements made by the insured in. the declarar tions.

The defendants answered, ’ denying the' material. allegations of the. petition. The defendant Callaway interposed-the additional defense that the-policy is ambiguous and ■ susceptible to more than one construction, including that of coverage for ■Dunn’s injury. One of the prayers was a request for judgment declaring coverage;. . . ...

Upon the trial, the evidence included this policy of insurance, and established that the defendant Dunn’s injury occurred while the insured’s truck was being used in hauling for" Wilkes County, Georgia,.instead of for Wilkes Construction Company...

.' At the conclusion of the evidence each side moved for-direction of a verdict in its favor. The court directed for the plaintiff in accordance with its requested declaration and entered judgment accordingly. Subsequently, the defendants made motions for. a new trial and for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict so rendered. 'Both were denied.

*428 Assigning error upon the denial of those motions, the defendants took the case to the Court of Appeals', which affirmed the trial court (103 Ga. App. 669, 120 SE2d 631). Five judges held that the policy covered the use of the vehicle only while hauling for the Wilkes Construction Company and in “occasional use” for personal, pleasure, family and other business purposes; and they also held that, under the evidence, the injury did not occur within such “occasional use” as provided in the policy. Two judges dissented upon the ground that coverage was not restricted to hauling for Wilkes Construction Company, named in the policy, but extended to other hauling within the insured’s occupation and to “occasional use” for the other named purposes. The eighth judge dissented upon a jurisdictional ground and the ninth did not participate.

The case came to this court by writ of certiorari.

1. The respondent moved to dismiss the petition for certiorari as having been improvidently granted for petitioner’s noncompliance with Rule 49 of this court (Code § 24-4553), which requires that the same contentions made in the petition for certiorari must have been embraced in the motion for rehearing in the Court of Appeals. This motion is, upon consideration, denied.

2. Reported cases provide little assistance in interpretation where the language of the documents involved is not the same. We have found no case with facts closely resembling those in the instant situation. Therefore, in ascertaining the intent of the parties here, we must construe the policy in accordance with what appears to us to be logic and common sense.

The wording relied upon in Item 5 of the declarations, “The purposes for which the automobile is to be used are” followed by “CL-7CA-Hauls for one concern — Wilkes Construction Co.,” considered either alone or with the other provisions of the policy, does not support an interpretation which results in restricting coverage for hauling to only that done for Wilkes Construction Company.

A broad look at the remainder of the same Item 5 and beyond, to the four corners of the document under scrutiny, should make this clear. Accompanying the above quoted portion of *429 Item 5 is the further statement: “(‘Pleasure and Business/ unless otherwise stated herein; ‘C’ means ‘Commercial’)-.” Thus, the letter “C” in “CL-7CA-Hauls for one concern — Wilkes Construction Co.,” furnishes the key. It in effect incorporates into Item 5 the provisions of Condition 6, which recites: “Purposes of Use Defined. . . (b) the term ‘commercial’ is defined as use principally in the business occupation of the named insured as stated in Item 1, including occasional use for personal, pleasure, family and other business purposes. . .” (Emphasis supplied.) The insured’s occupation is stated in Item 1 of the Declarations as “asphalt and gravel hauler.”

The facts supplied by Callaway for recital in Item 5 were true. He hauled for only one concern at any particular time. At the time he gave the information for the Declarations he was. hauling only for Wilkes Construction Company. When the injury occurred, he was hauling for only Wilkes County. The extract from Item 5 does not state that coverage for hauling exists only while the vehicle is used for Wilkes Construction Company, or that coverage will cease if the insured changes his employment. Hence the use of the truck was in accordance with the declaration as to its purpose.

The evidence points to the same conclusion as the language of the policy. The insured’s testimony was that the name of the concern for which he was working was inserted ini Item 5 of the Declarations because the insurance agent told him such inclusion would result in a lower premium; and that “Prior to the service of the suit ...

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Jefferson Ins. Co. of New York v. Dunn
482 S.E.2d 383 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1997)
Judie Fay Westbrook v. Safeco Life Insurance Company
908 F.2d 927 (Eleventh Circuit, 1990)
Canal Insurance Co. v. Liberty Mutual Insurance
395 F. Supp. 962 (N.D. Georgia, 1975)
Utica Mutual Insurance v. Dunn
129 S.E.2d 94 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1962)
Dunn v. Travelers Indemnity Co.
123 S.E.2d 198 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1961)

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Bluebook (online)
122 S.E.2d 518, 217 Ga. 426, 1961 Ga. LEXIS 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunn-v-travelers-indemnity-co-ga-1961.