Phillips v. Estate of Greenfield

1993 OK 110, 859 P.2d 1101, 64 O.B.A.J. 2858, 1993 Okla. LEXIS 136, 1993 WL 366294
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 21, 1993
Docket72,060
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 1993 OK 110 (Phillips v. Estate of Greenfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Phillips v. Estate of Greenfield, 1993 OK 110, 859 P.2d 1101, 64 O.B.A.J. 2858, 1993 Okla. LEXIS 136, 1993 WL 366294 (Okla. 1993).

Opinion

LAVENDER, Vice Chief Justice.

We decide here whether language of a motor vehicle exclusion in a homeowner’s insurance policy excludes liability coverage for bodily injury and medical payments for a motorcycle-automobile accident where the claim against the insured is based on the theory of negligent supervision of or failure to control a child. We hold the exclusion precludes coverage.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The following facts are either agreed to by the parties or the record shows they are undisputed. Ricky Greenfield (Greenfield) owned a motorcycle. He allowed his son, Rocky Greenfield (Rocky), 15 years old, to operate it only on the Greenfield’s property and under the supervision of Greenfield or Rocky’s mother. Rocky was an unlicensed driver. Greenfield kept the motorcycle padlocked in a shed. ■ Prior to the accident Greenfield had transferred auto insurance covering the motorcycle to another vehicle, with the result the motorcycle was not covered by automobile liability insurance. Garnishee/appellee, State Farm General Insurance Company and/or State Farm Fire *1103 and Casualty Insurance Company (State Farm) carried the auto insurance on Greenfield’s other vehicles and also the Greenfield’s homeowner’s insurance policy. Both Greenfield and Rocky were insureds under the policy. 1

In late 1986, without parental permission, Rocky took the keys to the shed and motorcycle, which were kept on a key rack in an open and obvious place of the Greenfield home, and took plaintiff/appellant, Michelle Dawn Phillips (Phillips), a minor, for a ride on the motorcycle on a public road. The motorcycle and a car collided. Rocky was killed and Phillips injured.

Phillips, by her father, sued Rocky’s estate and Ronald Curtis Underwood, the driver of the auto involved in the accident, but the claims against them were dismissed by Phillips without prejudice. Phillips also sued Greenfield for negligent entrustment and on allegations he rendered the motorcycle accessible to Rocky. In an amended petition, Phillips alleged negligence against Greenfield for leaving the motorcycle keys in an “open and obvious place thereby rendering them accessible to [Rocky].” (O.R. 9)

A judgment was rendered against Greenfield based on his confession. Phillips then brought a garnishment proceeding against State Farm based on the Greenfield’s homeowner’s policy. State Farm denied liability arguing the policy excluded coverage for bodily injury arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of a motor vehicle owned or operated by an insured. (State Farm Homeowners Policy, Section II Exclusions, (l)(e)(2), (O.R. 73). 2

Appellant, Mid-Century Insurance Company (Mid-Century), Phillips’ automobile liability insurer, intervened based on its sub-rogation claim to $20,000 paid to Phillips pursuant to the uninsured motorist provisions of the automobile policy.

State Farm moved for and was granted summary judgment. Phillips and Mid-Century appealed arguing the claim against Greenfield in the amended petition was for negligent supervision of or failure to control a child and that such claim was not excluded from coverage. State Farm countered that the claim, rather than being based on the legal theory of negligent supervision, was really one for negligent en-trustment subject to a specific separate exclusion in the policy. It also argued, even assuming the claim against Greenfield was for negligent supervision the general motor vehicle exclusion found in the State Farm Homeowners Policy, Section II Exclusions, (l)(e)(2), excluded coverage.

The Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment for State Farm. They held the amended petition was inadequate to state a claim for negligent supervision and also that the policy’s exclusion for motor vehicles in clear and unambiguous language excluded coverage under any theory of recovery, whether the claim was based on negligent entrustment or negligent supervision of a child. We granted certiorari. In that we, like the Court of Appeals, hold the policy excludes coverage for negligent supervision of a child under the undisputed facts, we find it unnecessary to decide if that court correctly determined the amended petition was insufficient to state a claim for negligent supervision. For purposes of our opinion we assume Phillips stated a claim against Greenfield for negligent supervision of or failure to control a child. 3

*1104 MOTOR VEHICLE EXCLUSION IN HOMEOWNER’S INSURANCE POLICY APPLIES TO A CLAIM BASED ON THE THEORY OF NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION

The exclusion pertinent to this case states as follows:

1. Coverage L [personal liability] and Coverage M [medical payments to others] do not apply to:
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e. bodily injury or property damage arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of:
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(2) a motor vehicle owned or operated by or rented or loaned to an insured;
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(bolding in original)

Boiled down appellants argue the exclusion does not preclude coverage where the legal theory sued upon is negligent supérvision because the parents are being sued for their own negligent acts in failing to control their child even though the instrumentality causing harm was a motor vehicle. On the other hand, State Farm argues the policy language in clear and unmistakable terms excludes coverage because the injuries arose out of the use of a motor vehicle owned by and operated by an insured. We agree with State Farm.

An insurance policy is a contract. If the terms are unambiguous, clear and consistent, they are to be accepted in their ordinary sense and enforced to carry out the expressed intention of the parties. Dodson v. St. Paul Insurance Company, 812 P.2d 372, 376 (Okla.1991). Whether an insurance contract is ambiguous is a matter for the court to determine as a matter of law. Id. When an insurance contract is susceptible of two meanings, i.e. if it is subject to an ambiguity, the familiar rule of insurance contract interpretation applies and words of inclusion are liberally construed in favor of the insured and words of exclusion strictly construed against the insurer. All American Insurance Company v. Burns, 971 F.2d 438, 442 (10th Cir.1992); Dayton Hudson Corporation v. American Mutual Liability Insurance Company, 621 P.2d 1155, 1158 (Okla.1980). Further, parties to an insurance contract are at liberty to contract for insurance to cover such risks as they see fit and are bound by the terms of the contract and courts will not undertake to rewrite the terms thereof. American Iron & Machine Works Company, Inc. v. Insurance Company of North America, 375 P.2d 873, Second Syllabus (Okla.1962); See also Torres v. Sentry Insurance,

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Bluebook (online)
1993 OK 110, 859 P.2d 1101, 64 O.B.A.J. 2858, 1993 Okla. LEXIS 136, 1993 WL 366294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/phillips-v-estate-of-greenfield-okla-1993.