Northland Insurance Co. v. Schubert

923 S.W.2d 512, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 979, 1996 WL 307291
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 4, 1996
DocketNo. 19855
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 923 S.W.2d 512 (Northland Insurance Co. v. Schubert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Northland Insurance Co. v. Schubert, 923 S.W.2d 512, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 979, 1996 WL 307291 (Mo. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

CROW, Judge.

The history of this appeal is:

November 16, 1995. This court issues opinion affirming trial court’s judgment.

December 8, 1995. This court denies motion for rehearing and denies motion to transfer to Supreme Court of Missouri.

January 28, 1996. Supreme Court of Missouri grants application to transfer.

May 28, 1996. Supreme Court of Missouri enters following order: “Cause ordered re-transferred to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District.”

This court now readopts its original opinion of November 16, 1995, set forth below.

ORIGINAL OPINION

The trial court entered judgment declaring that neither an insurance policy issued by Northland Insurance Company (“Northland”) nor an insurance policy issued by Guaranty National Insurance Company (“GNIC”) provided coverage for the parties alleged to be vicariously liable for personal injuries sustained by Dannie Schubert (“Dannie”)1 when a truck in which he was riding overturned because of the alleged negligence of the driver. Dannie and his wife, Linda, appeal from that judgment. We preface our discussion of the assignments of error with an account of the facts.

Marshaling the facts is a tedious task because the ease was submitted to, and decided by, the trial court on a motion by Northland for summary judgment. Consequently, the facts lurk in a blizzard of paper showered on the trial court and scattered throughout the 439-page legal file.2 Furthermore, the judgment does not identify the facts on which the trial court based its adjudication.3

[514]*514In tracking down and narrating the facts, we are mindful that inasmuch as this is an appeal from a summary judgment, we must review the record in the light most favorable to the Schuberts, the parties against whom judgment was entered. ITT Commercial Finance Corp. v. Mid-America Marine Supply Corp., 854 S.W.2d 371, 376[1] (Mo. banc 1993). In doing so, we are aided by the statement of facts in the Schuberts’ brief, which is adopted in toto by Northland in its brief and adopted by GNIC in its brief with minor additions.4 Where a statement of fact is asserted in one party’s brief and conceded to be true in the adversary’s brief, we may consider it as though it appears in the record. First Assembly Church of West Plains v. Ticor Title Insurance Co., 872 S.W.2d 577, 581[2] n. 8 (Mo.App.S.D.1994); Thornbury v. Morris Oil Company, Inc., 846 S.W.2d 238, 239[1] n. 2 (Mo.App.S.D.1993).

On June 10, 1986, the Schuberts filed a suit in the Circuit Court of Jasper County against three defendants. The suit was assigned number CV186-618CC; henceforth, we refer to it as “case 618.”

The Schuberts’ petition in case 618 identified the defendants as: (1) “Albert Straw, ... an individual, doing business as Albert Straw Trucking [in] ... Jasper County, Missouri,” (2) “Rail Water Transport, Inc., ... a corporation located at ... San Dimas, California,” and (3) “Nationwide Licensing Services!,] ... a corporation located at ... San Dimas, California.” We henceforth refer to those defendants as “Straw,” “Rail Water,” and “Nationwide,” respectively.

The Schuberts’ petition in ease 618 alleged, inter alia: (A) on March 24, 1984, Straw owned a truck “leased to Rail Water ... and licensed through Nationwide,” (B) on that date Straw, Rail Water and Nationwide were “engaged in a joint venture to transport a load of processed chicken from Nashville, Arkansas to Marionville, Missouri,” (C) in furtherance of the venture, Straw employed Dannie and one Robin Vancauwenbergh (“Robin”) to drive the truck, (D) while Robin was driving and Dannie was asleep in the “sleeper berth,” the truck overturned near Mountainburg, Arkansas, because of Robin’s negligence, and (E) Dannie sustained severe injuries. Dannie prayed for $500,000 for his injuries, and Linda prayed for $100,000 for loss of consortium.

On January 3, 1989, thirty months after the Schuberts filed case 618, Northland commenced the instant suit by filing a petition for declaratory judgment against Dannie, Linda, Straw, Rail Water, Nationwide, and GNIC. Northland’s petition alleged, inter alia: (A) on the date Dannie was allegedly injured, Straw was the named insured in insurance policy number T009615, issued by Northland, (B) policy T009615 contained an exclusion whereby the insurance did not apply to bodily injury to any employee of the insured arising out of and in the course of his employment by the insured, (C) at the time of the accident, Dannie was an employee of Straw, and (D) any injuries Dannie sustained arose out of and in the course of such employment.

Northland’s petition further alleged that at the time of the accident, Rail Water was insured by GNIC under policy number TP414546. .

Northland’s petition prayed, inter alia, that the trial court declare that by reason of the employee exclusion mentioned above, policy T009615 provided no coverage for any claims arising from any bodily injury sustained by Dannie, that Northland is not obligated to defend any claims arising out of any bodily injury sustained by Dannie, particularly any claims in case 618, and that Northland is not obligated to pay any judgment which may be entered in case 618.

The Schuberts filed an answer to North-land’s petition. Their answer admitted that at the time of the accident, Dannie was “an employee of either ... Straw ... or Railwa-ter [sic] ... or Nationwide,” and that Dannie’s injuries “did arise out of the course of [515]*515one of the aforementioned employments.”5 The answer cited § 390.1266 and pled that policy T009615 was issued by Northland “in order to provide that ... Straw would be in compliance with § 390.126.” Consequently, averred the Schuberts’ answer, “[T]o the extent that any provisions of ... policy [T009615] ... attempt to exclude coverage for the liability of ... Straw ... to ... Dannie ... for the reason that [he] was an employee of ... Straw, said [exclusion] is in conflict with § 390.126 ... and is not enforceable.”

The Schuberts’ answer prayed, inter alia, that the trial court declare policy T009615 covered any liability which Straw would have to the Schuberts for Dannie’s injuries arising out of the accident, and that Northland is obligated to pay, within the policy limits, any judgment rendered against Straw in case 618.

In addition to answering Northland’s petition, the Schuberts filed a cross-claim against GNIC praying the trial court to declare that policy TP414546 issued by GNIC provided coverage for claims arising from bodily injury sustained by Dannie, and that either GNIC or Northland or both were obligated to pay the amount of any judgment in case 618.

GNIC answered the Schuberts’ cross-claim by alleging that policy TP414546 “was amended on February 15,1984 to delete Rail Water Transport, Inc. as a named insured and therefore was not in effect for Rail Water Transport, Inc. on March 24, 1984.”7

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hall v. Hall
345 S.W.3d 291 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2011)
Flowers v. McDonald County
195 S.W.3d 434 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
923 S.W.2d 512, 1996 Mo. App. LEXIS 979, 1996 WL 307291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/northland-insurance-co-v-schubert-moctapp-1996.