Earl v. Commercial U. Ins. Co.

391 So. 2d 934
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 2, 1980
Docket14355
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 391 So. 2d 934 (Earl v. Commercial U. Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Earl v. Commercial U. Ins. Co., 391 So. 2d 934 (La. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

391 So.2d 934 (1980)

Patricia M. EARL, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
COMMERCIAL UNION INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 14355.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

December 2, 1980.

*935 Charles B. Bice, Winnfield, for plaintiff-appellee.

Kostelka, Swearingen & Street by C. Daniel Street, Monroe, for defendant-appellant.

Before PRICE, JASPER E. JONES and FRED W. JONES, Jr., JJ.

JASPER E. JONES, Judge.

Defendant, Commercial Union Insurance Company, appeals a judgment against it awarding plaintiff, Patricia M. Earl, $3500 for personal injuries sustained in an accident with an uninsured motorist.

On December 23, 1976, plaintiff was involved in an automobile accident in Houston, Texas, which was caused solely by the negligence of the other driver, an uninsured motorist. Plaintiff was driving a 1976 Chevrolet Chevette owned by her father, Elvin Earl, Sr., who had purchased for this vehicle a public liability policy with Aetna Life and Casualty Company containing uninsured motorist coverage. Plaintiff settled her claim with Aetna under its uninsured motorist coverage for the sum of $9500.

Earl, Sr., also owned another automobile on which a public liability policy had been issued by defendant containing uninsured motorist coverage. Although the car in which plaintiff was riding was not named in defendant's policy, plaintiff seeks to recover additional damages from defendant based upon the uninsured motorist coverage in this policy.

It was stipulated at trial that if plaintiff was entitled to recover from defendant, she should receive damages in the amount of $3500.

Defendant contested coverage on the grounds that (1) plaintiff was not a resident of the same household as the named insured and for this reason was not an insured under defendant's policy which required the relative to be a member of the named insured's household in order to be insured and (2) the policy excluded coverage on owned vehicles not listed in the policy as an insured automobile.

The trial judge found plaintiff was a resident of the same household as her father, the named insured, and found the exclusion void because it violated the public policy of the uninsured motorist statute. Defendant assigns each of these findings as error on appeal.

Plaintiff must be residing in the same household as her father, the named insured, in order to be an insured under defendant's policy. The policy provides insurance for the "named insured and any relative". The policy defines relative as "relative means a relative of the named insured who is a resident of the same household."

The leading Louisiana decision interpreting the meaning of "a resident of the same household" in an insurance policy is the case of Taylor v. State Farm Mutual Auto Ins. Co., 248 La. 246, 178 So.2d 238 (1965). In this case a 19 year old boy, a minor who finished high school in May, had left his parents' home in Arkansas and moved to Louisiana in July to live with his uncle. He *936 was living with his uncle and earning his own support. The uncle, a dragline operator, secured the boy a job as an oiler on the dragline. After the boy had been in Louisiana living with his uncle for about 2 months, the boy went to sleep while driving his uncle's motor vehicle and had an accident. The uncle, a passenger in the vehicle, was seriously injured, and sued the insurer of the boy's father's auto, alleging the boy was insured under the policy. The issue in the case reviewed by the supreme court was whether the 19 year old minor was a resident of the same household as his father in Arkansas, and therefore an insured under his father's public liability insurance policy. The court considered the fact that the boy was a minor as an important factor to consider in determining whether or not the boy was a resident of his father's household. The court recognized that LSA-C.C. art. 39[1] which provides that the domicile of a minor is that of his father was not controlling because there is a difference between domicile, of which an individual can have only one, and a residence, of which an individual can have more than one. The court, in a thorough analysis, citing common law authorities and dictionaries, concluded that an individual who can be categorized as a member of the family group comes within the definition of a resident of the same household even though he may temporarily reside at a place other than the place where the family group resides. The court concluded that the minor was a member of his father's family for the following reasons:

A. He continued to visit his parents.

B. He was free to return to his father's home.

C. There was no evidence that his parents were not willing to support him or were not legally obligated to support him.

D. There was no evidence that he had permanently established his residence in Louisiana.

Plaintiff is an 18 year old, but due to the 1972 amendment to LSA-C.C. art. 37[2] she is a major, whereas the 19 year old in Taylor, supra, before the amendment was considered a minor.[3] With this single exception, the cases are otherwise very similar.

Plaintiff had resided in Winnfield, Louisiana with her parents all her life until August, 1976. She finished high school in May, 1976, and planned to attend college at such time in the future as her parents became financially able to send her. There is evidence that her parents believed they could afford to send her to college in 1977. Plaintiff went to Houston for a visit with her cousin in August, 1976 and while there found a job as a nurse's aide in a nursing home. While she was in Houston, her father bought and financed a car for her in his name. Though plaintiff was expected to pay the notes on the vehicle, her father helped her pay the car installments when necessary. Plaintiff's parents sent her money for other living expenses when she needed it. Her room in the family home in Winnfield was maintained. She left her radio and TV in the room along with some clothing which she did not need in Houston. During the four months she was living in her cousin's home in Houston she visited her parents three times. The testimony of plaintiff, her mother, and her father established that plaintiff only intended to remain in Houston temporarily. A fair evaluation of the testimony of these witnesses establishes that plaintiff intended to return to her father's home and retain it as her residence while she attended college out of town. There is an isolated answer given by *937 the father in his deposition that he considered his daughter's move to Houston permanent, but this statement is contrary to all the remaining portion of the deposition; and we conclude that the totality of the father's deposition establishes he considered his 18 year old daughter remained a part of his family group who permanently resided with him. He helped her financially while she was in Houston and intended to help her go to college.

When plaintiff was injured in December, 1976, she returned to her parents' home where she remained until June, 1977, at which time she went to college in Dallas, Texas. Her father paid part of her school expenses.

The trial judge made the following finding of fact:

"The depositions of plaintiff and her parents establish that plaintiff graduated from high school in May, 1976. At all time prior thereto, plaintiff lived with her parents. In the summer of 1976, she went to Houston with a relative for a visit.

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Bluebook (online)
391 So. 2d 934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/earl-v-commercial-u-ins-co-lactapp-1980.