Messer v. American Mut. Liability Ins. Co.

241 S.W.2d 856, 193 Tenn. 19, 29 Beeler 19, 1951 Tenn. LEXIS 321
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 27, 1951
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 241 S.W.2d 856 (Messer v. American Mut. Liability Ins. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Messer v. American Mut. Liability Ins. Co., 241 S.W.2d 856, 193 Tenn. 19, 29 Beeler 19, 1951 Tenn. LEXIS 321 (Tenn. 1951).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Prewitt

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This was a suit brought by complainant Messer against the insurance company to recover on an insurance policy, the material clause of which provides as follows:

“Definition of ‘Insured’

“The unqualified word ‘insured’ wherever used in coverages A and B and in other parts of this policy, when applicable to such coverages, includes the named insured and, except where specifically stated to the contrary, also includes any person while using the automobile and any person or organization legally responsible for the use thereof, provided the actual use of the automobile is with the permission of the named insured. ’ ’

The defendant insurance company filed its demurrer to the original bill, which was sustained by the Chancellor *21 and the bill dismissed. The question presented is, where the owner of an automobile gives permission to her eighteen year old son to drive the automobile, and against the instructions of the owner, this son leaves the car, turns the car over to a friend who has a collision with another car, can the injured party maintain a suit in equity on a policy of insurance carried by the owner of the car, which policy has the above provision?

It appears that both the son and his friend were in an intoxicated condition at the time the son turned over the car to the friend and also at the time of the collision. The complainant frankly states in his brief that he has never and does not now contend that Kaisi, the driver of Mrs. Keid’s car, was an additional assured within the meaning of the insuring clause of her policy here sued on. The brief further recites that this question was settled by American Automobile Insurance Co. v. Jones, 163 Tenn. 605, 45 S. W. (2d) 52. The brief further states: “In other words, we are not urging that the secondary permittee (Kaisi) was an additional assured but do respectfully contend that the primary permittee, Reid, the unsuccessful defendant, in the damage suit who had secured express permission from his mother to use the car that fatal evening was an additional assured. The terms ‘primary permittee’ and ‘secondary permittee’, we note, are used generally in the hooks to distinguish between the first borrower of the vehicle in question and the one who later .borrows from him.”

It is further insisted that where Mrs. Reid had given her son permission to use and drive the car and the son turns the car over to a third party, they can recover on the theory of negligence.

The provisions of the standard insurance policy here involved have been before our courts in several *22 cases. We have held that the provision “ Provided the actual use of the automobile is with the permission of a named insured” means the use to which the vehicle is being put at the time of the accident with the permission of the named insured. American Automobile Insurance Co. v. Jones, supra; Hubbard v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 192 Tenn. 210, 240 S. W. (2d) 245; Romines v. The Preferred Accident Ins. Co. of N. Y. (opinion Nov. 26, 1932, unreported).

We have also held that actual use of the insured automobile must be with the permission of the named insured. Card v. Commercial Casualty Ins. Co., 20 Tenn. App. 132, 136, 95 S. W. (2d) 1281; Hunter v. Western & Southern Indemnity Co., 19 Tenn. App. 589, 92 S. W. (2d) 878; Hubbard v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., supra.

In American Automobile Insurance Company v. Jones, supra, Wilkes, a salesman, invited Jones to ride. Thrice, a stranger to the company, was driving. Wilkes and Jones were riding in the car. This misuse was expressly prohibited, as it was against the instructions of this salesman for him to let any one drive the car. The policy provided that the insurance was available to any person while riding in or legally operating the car but only while it was being used for the purposes specified. The defense was that the car was being used in a manner not only unauthorized by the owner but contrary to his positive instructions.

The Court discussed and distinguished the case of Stovall v. New York Indemnity Co., 157 Tenn. 301, 8 S. W. (2d) 473, 72 A. L. R. 1368. It pointed out the language of the Stovall policy “providing such use or operation is with the permission of the named assured.” [163 Tenn. 605, 45 S. W. (2d) 53.] The Court'held that *23 the driving by Thrice was a material departure, not only in place and purpose, but in use.

The holding was as follows:

“Delivered to Wilkes for his use does not imply consent' to use — in the essential sense of operation, handling, driving by some unknown and unapproved third person. In one sense, it is true, it continued to be devoted to the use of Wilkes, but it was not he who was using it in the sense of controlling, manipulating, guiding it — and a restriction on its use in this sense would appear to be. called for by the nature of the obligation created by the indemnity contract. The element of risk underlies all forms of insurance. The insurer has a right to assume that the risk he undertakes shall not be enlarged. .
“But a change of driving, operating control, injects a distinctly new element.
“Consistently with this construction, in the instant case the stipulation shows that this particular misuse was expressly prohibited; that it ivas against the instructions of this salesman ‘for him to permit any one to drive the car.’ We are unable to extend the required consent by implication to cover as ‘additional assured’ one who has, without authority of the owner, substituted for himself, a third party, conferring on him the uncontrolled power to inflict the injury and create the liability. ’ ’

It is to be noted that Wilkes was riding in the car and in the present case, the son, Don Reid, was not.

In Card v. Commercial Casualty Ins. Co., supra, the provision of the policy was that the insurance was available “to any person while riding in or legally operating the automobile provided such use or operation is with the permission of the named insured.” Insured, Ogilvie, was an individual engaged in the lumber and coal business. *24 Rollin Lasseter was manager. Ogilvie permitted Lasseter to nse the car as he wished for business or pleasure and Lasseter testified that Ogilvie turned the car over to him •saying: “Here is a car to be used by you, use it just as if it were your own. [20 Tenn. App. 136, 95 S. W. 2d 1282.]” Rollin Lasseter instructed his brother, Robert Lasseter, who made his home with Rollin, to drive Card home in the automobile and on the way Card was killed.

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Bluebook (online)
241 S.W.2d 856, 193 Tenn. 19, 29 Beeler 19, 1951 Tenn. LEXIS 321, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/messer-v-american-mut-liability-ins-co-tenn-1951.