Saragan v. Bousquet

75 N.E.2d 649, 322 Mass. 14, 1947 Mass. LEXIS 723
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedNovember 7, 1947
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 75 N.E.2d 649 (Saragan v. Bousquet) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Saragan v. Bousquet, 75 N.E.2d 649, 322 Mass. 14, 1947 Mass. LEXIS 723 (Mass. 1947).

Opinion

Dolan, J.

This is a bill in equity to reach and apply, in satisfaction of a judgment against the defendant administrator of the estate of Percy A. Bousquet, an alleged obligation of the defendant Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company under a policy of automobile liability insurance. See G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 175, § 113, and c. 214, § 3 (10). The case comes before us on the appeal of the plaintiff from a decree entered by the judge dismissing the bill as to the defendant Catherine L. Bousquet and the defendant insurance company, and adjudging that the defendant administrator of the estate of Percy A. Bousquet is indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of $2,923.87 with interest thereon, malting.a total sum of $3,080.16.

The evidence is reportéd and the judge filed a document entitled “The Material Facts,” containing certain findings of fact, a ruling and an order for decree. Material facts disclosed by the evidence follow. The policy of compulsory motor vehicle liability insurance in question was issued to the defendant Catherine L. Bousquet by the defendant insurance company, hereinafter called the insurer, in 1942. It contained no guest coverage. It was in effect on December 22, 1942. On that date, while Percy A. Bousquet (hereinafter referred to as Bousquet) with the permission of the insured was operating the motor vehicle described in the policy, it became involved in an accident. The plaintiff was riding in the automobile at the time and as a result was injured. Bousquet was also injured and died as a result. The defendant Simoneau was appointed administrator of his estate. Thereafter the plaintiff brought an action of tort against the administrator. The writ was returnable to the Superior Court on December 6, 1943. On November 10, 1944, the defendant administrator, hereinafter de[16]*16scribed as the administrator, sent a letter to the insurer stating, in substance, that until shortly before that date he had been unable to obtain from the insured the name of the insurer, but had finally procured it, and notifying the insurer to appear and defend the action. This letter contained a brief statement of the allegations of the plaintiff’s declaration which contained four counts, describing the first count as alleging negligence of Bousquet, the second count as alleging gross negligence, the third reckless operation of the vehicle, and the fourth illegal registration. A copy of the declaration was sent to the insurer with this letter. In each count it was alleged that the plaintiff was riding in the automobile involved at the time of the accident by the express invitation of Bousquet. On November 27, 1944, the insurer in reply wrote to the administrator, stating that the matter had been looked, into, that its records disclosed that there was “no ‘guest coverage’ on the policy” in question, that “it would, therefore, appear that ... [it was] not interested in this accident,” and that it was returning the original summons. The insurer did not appear and defend the action which was tried on the first count only of the declaration1 to a jury who returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and judgment was entered thereon upon which nothing has been paid. Bousquet was not insured under the workmen’s compensation act.

Facts found by the judge, so far as appears voluntarily, are these: “On the date of the accident she [the plaintiff] was in the general employ of one Justo who ran a café [in Hudson] across the street from the one run by Percy [Bous-quet]. Plaintiff asked Justo if she could get through early stating that she wanted to go to Clinton with Percy. She left early, went across the street to Percy’s café, claimed that she worked two hours for Percy on his promise to pay her $5 and drive her to her home in Marlborough. Plaintiff testified that Percy further said ‘I’ve got a few calls to make in Clinton and I’ll drive you home if you’ll go with me.’ The distance from Hudson to Marlborough is four [17]*17miles; from Hudson to Clinton is nine miles and from Clinton to Marlborough is eight miles via South Berlin; the accident was in Berlin on Route 62, and was seven miles from Marlborough. Plaintiff and Percy did not leave the café on their way to Clinton until 10:30 p.m. The accident was shortly after 1 a.m. the next day. Percy carried no workmen’s compensation insurance. This' accident happened on a very cold December night in 1942. . . . There was no guest coverage in the policy issued to Catherine Bousquet. The declaration in the law action was received in evidence as an exhibit. There is no allegation of an employer and employee relationship.” The document setting forth these findings also contains the following: “Ruling If any employer and employee relationship existed as claimed by the plaintiff, and she has not sustained the burden of proof as to that, that relationship terminated when they started for Clinton. If contract of employment called for taking plaintiff home, she wasn’t taken home but taken for a ride and as such was then a guest of Percy Bousquet at the time of the accident.”

During the course of the hearing of the present suit the plaintiff excepted to the exclusion of a transcript of the evidence taken during the trial of the action of tort and of the judge’s charge to the jury,1 all offered to establish that at that trial the issue of the relationship of the plaintiff to Bousquet at the time of the accident had been finally adjudicated to be that of an occupant of the vehicle under a contract of employment which provided for the transportation. The plaintiff also excepted to the admission of evidence introduced by the insurer to show that the plaintiff at the time of the accident was merely a guest occupant of the vehicle.

The plaintiff’s contentions, among others, are “1. That the verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiff was [sic] res judicata as to the defendant Massachusetts Bonding and Insurance Company, that the plaintiff was at the time of [18]*18the accident an employee of Percy Bousquet. 2. That the court erred in its refusal to admit the record of the tort case both as to the transcript of the evidence and the court’s charge in support of her contention as alleged in paragraph 3 of the bill in equity. ... 5. The finding of the trial court was inconsistent with the declaration in the original case and the verdict of the jury.” The principal contention of the insurer is that it is not “bound by the judgment obtained by the plaintiff in the law suit and precluded from showing that there was no coverage.”

In support of the position taken by the insurer it is argued that, since the plaintiff’s declaration in the action of tort did not contain any allegation of employer-employee relation between the plaintiff and Bousquet at the time of the accident, it was entitled to assume that the relationship of the plaintiff to Bousquet was not that of a business invitee but was that of a mere guest, and that, because the policy of insurance contained no guest coverage, the failure of the insurer to appear and defend the action did not bar it from seeking to establish in the present suit that the relationship of the plaintiff to Bousquet was merely that of a guest. We do not concur in that reasoning. The allegations of the several counts of the plaintiff’s declaration in the action at law were that the plaintiff was a passenger in the automobile at the time of the accident by the express invitation of Bousquet, that is, as an invitee. And the word “invitee” has not infrequently been used to distinguish a business invitee from a mere guest. Epstein v. Simco Trading Co. Inc. 297 Mass. 282, 284, and cases cited.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
75 N.E.2d 649, 322 Mass. 14, 1947 Mass. LEXIS 723, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/saragan-v-bousquet-mass-1947.