Royal Globe Insurance Companies v. Fletcher

459 A.2d 255, 123 N.H. 189, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 250
CourtSupreme Court of New Hampshire
DecidedMarch 28, 1983
DocketNo. 81-272; No. 81-289
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 459 A.2d 255 (Royal Globe Insurance Companies v. Fletcher) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Royal Globe Insurance Companies v. Fletcher, 459 A.2d 255, 123 N.H. 189, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 250 (N.H. 1983).

Opinion

Brock, J.

These appeals involve a petition for declaratory judgment (RSA 491:22) by which the plaintiff, Royal Globe Insurance Companies, seeks a judicial determination that Concord General Mutual Insurance Company, rather than it, is required to provide coverage for a 1974 accident. The Trial Court (Contas, J.) entered a decree under which both companies would have to afford coverage, and they appealed. We affirm that portion of the decree requiring Royal Globe to provide coverage and reverse that portion requiring Concord General to provide coverage.

This case arises out of an accident in 1974 in which Philip L. Fletcher, an employee of Cheshire Landscaping Service, Inc. of Keene was injured by a tractor/backhoe driven by Albert F. Hurd, a [191]*191fellow employee. Cheshire Landscaping was insured by Royal Globe. Mr. Hurd was insured under two Concord General Mutual Insurance Company policies. John Kunze, president of Cheshire Landscaping, was supervising the job site at the time of the accident and was named, along with Mr. Hurd, in the underlying action filed by Philip and Wilma Fletcher in 1978.

The parties’ agreed statement of facts and the language of the insurance policies at issue form the basis for this appeal. On November 13, 1974, Kunze, Hurd and Fletcher were working at the G.T.E. Sylvania plant in Hillsborough on a Cheshire Landscaping job. The injuries occurred when a tractor with backhoe attachment, operated by Hurd and owned by Cheshire Landscaping, struck Fletcher while he was directing Hurd from the ground. It is agreed that Kunze was in charge of supervising the job site when the accident occurred. At the time of the accident, Cheshire Landscaping had in effect two insurance policies issued by Royal Globe: A workmen’s compensation and employer’s liability policy and a comprehensive general liability and special multi-peril policy with a motor vehicle liability endorsement bringing it within the then-controlling Financial Responsibility Act, Laws 1971, 456:1 (now codified at RSA 259:61, I).

The trial court ruled, and no party now disputes, that Royal Globe had no liability under the workmen’s compensation and employer’s liability policy. The court determined, however, that Royal Globe was obligated to provide coverage for Kunze and Hurd under the comprehensive general liability and multi-peril policy.

Section I, Coverage C of that policy provides that Royal Globe “will pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury . . . arising out of . . . all operations necessary or incidental to the business of the named insured. . . .” Section 11(c) of the policy states that this coverage is provided not only for the named insured, Cheshire Landscaping, but also for “any executive officer .. . thereof while acting within the scope of his duties as such.” Although Royal Globe acknowledges that Kunze was an executive officer of the corporation, Royal Globe maintains that at the time of the accident, he was not acting within the scope of his duties as such. Royal Globe therefore disputes the trial court’s ruling that it must provide coverage to Kunze under this section of the contract.

The policy does not define “executive officer.” See Young v. N.H. Indent. Co., Inc., 120 N.H. 882, 883, 424 A.2d 205, 206 (1980). A review of the parties’ agreed facts and the evidence at trial, however, fully supports the trial court’s ruling that Kunze was acting [192]*192within the scope of his duties as an executive officer when the accident occurred.

After becoming an officer and president of Cheshire Landscaping in 1973, Kunze assumed supervisory and managerial functions. At trial, Mr. Kunze stated that he was in fact the company’s only supervisor and that, at the time of the accident in question, he was in charge of the job site. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher alleged in their underlying action that Kunze breached precisely this supervisory duty by failing to ensure for Fletcher’s safety on the job site. See Young v. N.H. Indem. Co., Inc., 120 N.H. at 883, 424 A.2d at 206; Stevens v. Lewis, 118 N.H. 367, 369, 387 A.2d 637, 638 (1978).

We agree with the trial court that this case is analogous to the situation in Young, where we held that a policy provision identical to the one at hand covered a fellow employee who was alleged to have breached his duty as plant manager to provide a safe workplace to the other employees. The same result is appropriate in the present case, where the party to be covered is the president of a small company whose regular, acknowledged duties since becoming president have included his presence, involvement at and supervision of company work sites.

We note, in addition, that as in Young, the term “executive officer” is ambiguous, and is therefore to be construed against the insurer. Id. at 883-84, 424 A.2d at 206-07; see Trombly v. Blue Cross/Blue Shield, 120 N.H. 764, 772, 423 A.2d 980, 984 (1980).

We next turn to the trial court’s ruling that Royal Globe must provide coverage to Mr. Hurd for up to $20,000, the statutory limit then provided under our Financial Responsibility Act, Laws 1971, 456:1. As a preliminary matter, we agree with the trial court’s conclusion, barely disputed on appeal, that the tractor with backhoe attachment is a “motor vehicle” for the purposes of the Financial Responsibility Act. See American Mut. &c. Ins. Co. v. Chaput, 95 N.H. 200, 204, 60 A.2d 118, 121 (1948). Royal Globe nonetheless contends that it has no liability in this case because Fletcher is not a person covered by the terms of the Act.

The Act provides coverage for damages to any person “other than the insured, or employees of the insured actually operating the motor vehicle or such other person responsible as aforesaid . . .” See Laws 1971, 456:1 (now RSA 259:61). Royal Globe argues that because Fletcher was giving Hurd directions in order to prevent him from removing too much pavement, Fletcher should be considered as having been “responsible as aforesaid” for the operation of the tractor, and therefore excluded from recovery under the Act.

[193]*193 This court has, however, stated previously that this statutory language excludes only a person who is actually operating the motor vehicle. Merchants &c. Cas. Co. v. Tuttle, 98 N.H. 349, 354, 101 A.2d 262, 265 (1953). Mr. Fletcher was not actually operating the backhoe; the trial court therefore correctly ruled that Royal Globe must provide coverage for Mr. Hurd up to the limits of its statutory liability.

We next consider whether there is coverage under either of the policies issued by Concord General Mutual Insurance Company to Albert F. Hurd as the named insured. At the time of the accident, Mr. Hurd had in effect a comprehensive personal liability policy and a merit-rated family combination automobile liability policy. It is not now disputed that Concord General need not provide coverage to Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
459 A.2d 255, 123 N.H. 189, 1983 N.H. LEXIS 250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/royal-globe-insurance-companies-v-fletcher-nh-1983.