Lancer Insurance Co. v. Garcia Holiday Tours

345 S.W.3d 50, 54 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 1452, 2011 Tex. LEXIS 512, 2011 WL 2586878
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 2011
Docket10-0096
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 345 S.W.3d 50 (Lancer Insurance Co. v. Garcia Holiday Tours) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lancer Insurance Co. v. Garcia Holiday Tours, 345 S.W.3d 50, 54 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 1452, 2011 Tex. LEXIS 512, 2011 WL 2586878 (Tex. 2011).

Opinion

Justice MEDINA

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The question in this appeal is whether the transmission of a communicable disease from the driver of a motor vehicle to a passenger is a covered loss under a business auto policy, which affords coverage for accidental bodily injuries resulting from the vehicle’s use. The issue is one of first impression in this state and perhaps the country. The parties advise that they have found no similar reported cases.

The trial court concluded that the policy covered this type of occurrence and ren *52 dered summary judgment that the insurance carrier owed a duty to indemnify the insured. The court of appeals agreed that the policy might provide coverage for such a claim but reversed the summary judgment and remanded the case to the trial court to resolve a factual dispute about whether the passengers had contracted the disease while in the vehicle. 308 S.W.3d 35, 47 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 2009). Because we conclude that communicable diseases are not an insured risk under this particular policy, we reverse the judgment below and render judgment for the insurance carrier.

I

Garcia Holiday Tours operates a commercial bus company in South Texas. It contracted with the Alice Independent School District to provide a bus and driver for a field trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. The trip was for members of the Alice High School band, several of whom observed the driver coughing during the trip. Upon their return, the driver was hospitalized after being diagnosed with an active case of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis, or TB, is a bacterial infection that can live in a person’s body without making the person sick. 1 In this inactive state, referred to as latent tuberculosis, the disease is not contagious. Active tuberculosis, on the other hand, is contagious and commonly transmitted by the infected person coughing or sneezing. As one court has observed: “The vast majority of tubercular patients gain their infection through inhalation of the bacilli directly into the lungs. Infection is- usually due to the inhalation of wet sputum coughed into the air, where it may float about in the form of tiny globules for a considerable time and distance.” Earle v. Kuklo, 26 N.J.Super. 471, 98 A.2d 107, 108 (N.J.Super.Ct.App.Div.1953) (citing 1 GRAY, ATTORNEY’S TEXTBOOK OF MEDICINE § 36.11, p. 542 (3rd ed.1949)).

The immune systems of most people who breathe in the TB bacteria are able to fight off the disease, and thus the newly infected person remains asymptomatic. Only about 10% of those infected with TB develop an active case. 2 Active TB, however, can be quite serious not only because it is contagious but also because the bacteria cause tissue death in the infected organs. The driver here had reportedly been asymptomatic for many years before his TB became active.

The passengers were tested for the disease after learning of the driver’s diagnosis, and several tested positive for latent TB. These passengers subsequently sued the driver and bus company, asserting that they were negligently exposed to the disease as a result of being confined on the bus with the infected driver during the band trip. The bus company notified Lancer Insurance Company, its insurance carrier, but Lancer refused to defend the claim, maintaining that such claims were not covered under the policy. Left to defend itself, the bus company proceeded to trial where- a jury found it and the driver liable and awarded collectively over $5 million in damages to the passengers who had contracted the disease.

After judgment in the passengers’ tort suit, the bus company and driver sued Lancer, asserting contractual and extra-contractual claims and seeking a declaration of rights under the business auto policy. The passengers, now judgment cred *53 itors of the insureds, intervened, also seeking a declaration of Lancer’s obligations under the policy.

Lancer and the passengers filed summary judgment motions. Lancer’s motion sought to establish that the passengers’ underlying claims and judgment required neither a defense nor indemnification under the terms of the business auto policy, while the passengers’ motion sought to establish Lancer’s obligation to indemnify the insureds for the passengers’ underlying tort judgment. The bus company and its driver, who as the insureds had initiated the suit, did not seek summary judgment.

The trial court granted the passengers’ motion and denied Lancer’s. It then severed the passengers’ claims from the remainder of the case, allowing Lancer to appeal the passengers’ favorable summary judgment, which Lancer did.

The court of appeals reversed the summary judgment. 308 S.W.3d 35 (Tex.App.San Antonio 2009). While agreeing that the policy might provide coverage for communicable diseases transmitted during the bus trip, the court of appeals nevertheless reversed the passengers’ summary judgment because there was no conclusive proof that the passengers’ 3 infections had occurred on the bus. Id. at 44-47. The court remanded the ease to the trial court to resolve this factual dispute about where the infected passengers contracted the disease which would apparently then resolve whether Lancer had an obligation to indemnify its insureds. Id. at 47. Unsatisfied with the court of appeals’ decision, Lancer appealed to this Court, and we granted its petition for review to consider the novel coverage question.

II

Lancer’s business auto policy states that coverage is afforded for damages the insured is legally obligated to pay “because of ‘bodily injury ... caused by an ‘accident’ and resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of a covered ‘auto.’ ” 4 The terms accident, auto, and bodily injury are defined in the policy,'to wit:

A. “Accident” includes continuous or repeated exposure to the same conditions resulting in “bodily injury” or “property damage.”
B. “Auto” means a land motor vehicle ... designed for travel on public roads....
C. “Bodily injury” means bodily injury, sickness or disease sustained by a person including death resulting from any of these.

Lancer concedes that the bus is a covered “auto,” the passengers’ claims involve an accident, and tuberculosis is a “bodily injury” under the policy’s definitions. Lancer maintains, however, that the accident and the injuries did not result from the use of the bus, as the policy requires, but rather *54 from other causes, such as the use of a contagious bus driver. Lancer submits that the risk of being exposed to an infectious individual and contracting a disease is a general liability risk, not an auto liability risk, even when the infectious individual happens to be the vehicle’s driver.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
345 S.W.3d 50, 54 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 1452, 2011 Tex. LEXIS 512, 2011 WL 2586878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lancer-insurance-co-v-garcia-holiday-tours-tex-2011.