Indiana Insurance Co. v. American Community Services, Inc.

768 N.E.2d 929, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 809, 2002 WL 1060839
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 29, 2002
DocketNo. 46A05-0107-CV-320
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 768 N.E.2d 929 (Indiana Insurance Co. v. American Community Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indiana Insurance Co. v. American Community Services, Inc., 768 N.E.2d 929, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 809, 2002 WL 1060839 (Ind. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION

BAILEY, Judge.

Case Summary

Appellant-Plaintiff Indiana Insurance Company ("Indiana Insurance") brings an interlocutory appeal challenging the trial court's declaratory judgment that insurance coverage existed for Appellee-Defen-dant American Community Services ("ACS"). We affirm.

Issues

Indiana Insurance raises two issues on appeal, which we consolidate and restate as follows:

Whether the trial court's judgment was supported by sufficient evidence.

Facts and Procedural History

ACS is in the business of processing magazine subscriptions. To this end, ACS contracts with forty to fifty different sales crews across the United States. These sales crews conduct door-to-door magazine sales. Crew managers provide the vans that transport the sales crews from city to city and to the neighborhoods within the cities. ACS has independent contractor contracts with these crew managers. The crew managers, in turn, maintain independent contractor contracts with their salespeople.

On October 11, 1992, a van owned by crew managers Jane and Andre Walker ("Walkers") and carrying a sales crew that was soliciting magazine sales to be processed at ACS, was involved in a one-vehicle accident just west of Amarillo, Texas. As a result of this accident, passenger Charles Harrington ("Harrington") was severely injured and passenger Basil Smith ("Smith") was killed.

In the facts and procedure section of the parties' previous interlocutory appeal, we summarized in part as follows:

At the time of the accident, ACS had obtained two insurance policies from Indiana Insurance: a standard "Indi-Pack Liability Coverage Policy of Insurance" (the "IndiPack Policy") [a general liability insurance policy] and a "Comprehensive Excess Liability Policy" (the "Excess Policy") [a drop down excess umbrella policy]. The IndiPack policy had been amended with an endorsement that read in pertinent part:
THIS ENDORSEMENT CHANGES THE POLICY. PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY HIRED AUTO AND NON-OWNED AUTO LIABILITY
[931]*931This endorsement modifies insurance provided under the following:
INDIPACK POLICY
A. Insurance is provided only for those coverages which are shown in the Declarations.
1. HIRED AUTO LIABILITY
The insurance provided under the Indi-Pack Liability Coverage Form, paragraph A.1. Business Liability, applies to "bodily injury" or "property damage" arising out of the maintenance or use of a "hired auto" by you or your employee in the course of your business.
2, NON-OWNED AUTO LIABILITY The insurance provided under the Indi-Pack Liability Coverage Form, Paragraph A.1. Business Liability, applies to "bodily injury" or "property damage" arising out of the use of any "non-owned auto" in your business by any person other than you. ...
C. The following additional definitions apply:
2. "Hired auto" means any "auto" you lease, hire or borrow. This does not include any "auto" you lease, hire or borrow from any of your employees or members of their households, or from any partner or executive officer of yours.
3. "Non-owned auto" means any "auto" you do not own, lease, hire or borrow which is used in connection with your business. However, if you are a partnership, a "non-owned auto" does not include any "auto" owned by any partner. [Footnote omitted]

Indiana Ins. Co. v. American Community Services, Inc., 718 N.E.2d 1147, 1149-50 (Ind.Ct.App.1999).

On December 16, 1992, Harrington filed a lawsuit for his injuries in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, naming ACS as one of the Defendants. On August 9, 1994, a wrongful death action was filed by the beneficiaries of Smith in the same court. Again, the pertinent procedural histories of these cases were summarized by this Court in the previous interlocutory appeal.

Procedural History-Harrington
On December 16, 1992, Harrington sued ACS, the Walkers, Paragon, and Isaac[1] in federal court in Texas ... [footnote omitted]. Initially, Indiana Insurance defended ACS in the Harring, ton suit,; however, Indiana Insurance sent a letter dated January 4, 1994, [footnote omitted] to ACS president Scott, expressing a reservation of rights. The letter also "direct[ed]" Mr. Seott's "attention to exelusion (e) of the policy which excludes bodily injury to an employee of the insured ... [and tol exelusion (J) of the policy which provides that there is no insurance coverage for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use or en-trustment of any auto owned by the insured."
The Harrington suit was tried to a jury in the Texas court. On February 16, 1994, a final judgment of $300,000 was entered in favor of Harrington against Isaac, ACS, and the Walkers ("the Harrington judgment").[2]
In response to the Harrington judgment, Indiana Insurance filed a complaint for declaratory relief against ACS [932]*932. in the LaPorte Superior Court on March 14, 1994 ... seeking a determination that neither of its policies issued to ACS afforded ACS any right of indemnification for the Harrington judgment. ACS's answer stated that Indiana Insurance had agreed to represent ACS under the terms of the policy issued and had therefore waived any right to deny coverage and should be estopped from so doing. Among other affirmative defenses, ACS asserted that Harrington was not an employee of ACS. Finally, ACS counter-claimed that by reserving its rights within days of the trial in the Harrington suit, Indiana Insurance had breached the agreement between the parties, which was an act of bad faith.
Indiana Insurance moved for summary judgment in the Harrington declaratory action on April 30, 1998, asserting that there was "no genuine issue that the van driven by Isaac was neither a 'hired auto' nor a 'non-owned auto' as defined under the [hired auto and non-owned auto liability endorsements]," and as such, there was "no genuine issue that there is no coverage under the Indi-Pack Policy" or under the Excess Policy, and that Indiana Insurance was entitled to declaratory judgment as a matter of law. In support of this summary judgment motion, Indiana Insurance submitted among its designated evidence its request for admissions and ACS's answers thereto. [Footnote omitted]
In response to Indiana Insurance's summary judgment motion, on June 11, 1998, ACS moved to withdraw its admissions in the Harrington declaratory action. On June 15, 1998, ACS filed its own motion for partial summary judgment on its policy coverage and breach of contract claims, a brief in response to Indiana Insurance's summary judgment motion, and a motion for abatement regarding the issue of coverage under the Excess Policy.[3]
ACS asserted more than ten different grounds for summary judgment in its favor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
768 N.E.2d 929, 2002 Ind. App. LEXIS 809, 2002 WL 1060839, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indiana-insurance-co-v-american-community-services-inc-indctapp-2002.