State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Liberty Mutual Insurance

238 F. Supp. 141, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6380
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Virginia
DecidedJanuary 28, 1965
DocketCiv. A. No. 64-C-26-R
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 238 F. Supp. 141 (State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Liberty Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Liberty Mutual Insurance, 238 F. Supp. 141, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6380 (W.D. Va. 1965).

Opinion

DALTON, Chief Judge.

This is a declaratory judgment action commenced by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (hereinafter called “State Farm”) against the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company (hereinafter called “Liberty Mutual”) and others. The action arose out of an automobile accident which occurred in Martinsville, Virginia on November 16, 1963, involving a 1956 Ford automobile owned by Melvin N. Frith and being operated at the time of the accident by Stephen O. McDaniel, and an automobile being operated by Charles G. Williams. Williams has instituted an action in the Circuit Court of the City of Martinsville against Stephen McDaniel seeking fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) in damages for alleged injuries sustained in the accident. The instant case was brought to determine the insurance coverage available to Stephen McDaniel.

It appears that Liberty Mutual held in force a policy of automobile liability insurance naming Melvin N. Frith and Lois Frith as the insured owners of the 1956 Ford automobile involved here, together with other automobiles. Lester B. and Imogene McDaniel were the named insureds in a policy of automobile liability insurance issued and held in force by State Farm. Stephen McDaniel was their minor son and a member of the McDaniel household.

On the evening of November 16, 1963 Teresa Anne Frith asked the permission of her father, Melvin Frith, to use the 1956 Ford automobile so that she and several young friends might visit a teenage recreation center in Martinsville and go to a drive-in restaurant for refreshments afterwards. Teresa had only recently procured her operator’s license, and thus, had only restricted use of the automobile. She asked permission of her parents each time she used the car and was under standing instructions not to let anyone else drive it.

[142]*142She obtained permission to use the ear on the evening in question for limited purposes and states that she fully understood that she was not to let anyone else drive the car. Later that evening the Frith car struck the car driven by Williams while being driven by Stephen McDaniel, a fifteen year old unlicensed driver who had obtained his “learner’s permit” only three days prior to the accident.

State Farm admits that it must provide coverage for Stephen McDaniel under the policy it has issued to the parents of the boy. However, its policy provides only excess insurance with respect to non-owned automobiles and thus State Farm contends that Liberty Mutual, insuring the Frith car, must provide primary coverage here. This brings us to a consideration of the coverage of the Liberty Mutual policy.

According to counsel for Liberty Mutual the omnibus clause of their new revised policy, incorporated into the instant policy, operates to limit the coverage afforded in situations such as that presently before the court. With respect to an owned automobile the policy insures, in addition to the name insured, “any other person using such automobile with the ed his actual operation * * * is with-permission of the named insured, providin the scope of such permission”.

Most of the pertinent Virginia cases have construed the old standard form clause which defined as an insured under the omnibus clause, “any other person using the automobile, provided the actual use thereof is with the permission of the named insured”. The Virginia courts have freely given effect to this limitation in coverage and have, in each case, held that a user of the automobile may not be an additional insured under the omnibus clause unless it is shown that permission was expressly or impliedly given for his use of the automobile by the named insured. Aetna v. Czoka, 200 Va. 385, 105 S.E.2d 869 (1958); State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Cook, 186 Va. 658, 43 S.E.2d 863, 5 A.L.R.2d 594 (1947). Thus, in United States Casualty Co. v. Bain, 191 Va. 717, 62 S.E.2d 814 (1951) where an owner had loaned his truck to a man to be used for a personal errand and requested that it be returned at a fixed time and the man after departing with a friend had left the truck and failed to return at the appointed time; and when the permittee had not returned on time the friend was proceeding to drive the truck back to the owner when a collision occurred, the Supreme Court of Appeals held that the friend was not covered by the policy in that there was no permission granted him for use of the truck by the owner. See also, Farmer v. Fidelity & Cas. Co., 249 F.2d 185 (4th Cir. 1957) and Hopson v. Shelby Mut. Cas. Co., 203 F.2d 434 (4th Cir. 1953). In both of these Fourth Circuit cases the permittee was given the use of an automobile and instructed not to let anyone else drive. In both instances an accident occurred while third persons were driving and it was held that there was no coverage under the owners’ insurance policy for lack of permission.

Clearly, there was no express permission given in this case. Teresa Frith was given the use of the automobile by her parents for the limited purpose of going to a recreation center and then to one or more drive-in restaurants which were frequented by her friends. She stated that her father had always told her on allowing her permission to use the car that she was not to let anyone else drive it. Both Teresa and her father testified that they did not specifically recall whether or not the instruction was reiterated on the night in question but that it was clearly understood between them that no one else was to drive the ear at any time when she obtained permission to use it.

Teresa left her home on the evening of November 16, 1963, picked up two girl friends, and proceeded toward the recreation center. There is a minor conflict in the accounts as to exactly what occurred then but in all the accounts it appears that the girls’ destination and purpose remained within the scope of the permission contemplated by the parents. [143]*143They may have stopped by the recreation center for a short time, or by the Ayer’s Drive-In, or both. Shortly afterwards, while Teresa was driving the Frith car occupied in addition only by her two girl friends, in the presence of Johnny Coulson and Stephen McDaniel who were riding in an auto driven by the former, Teresa momentarily lost control of the car. She took her eyes off the road for a moment and the car went off the surface of the roadway on to the gravel shoulder at the right side. According to the testimony of the two boys, the car very nearly went into the river. However, Teresa regained control immediately and returned the car to the pavement with no further incident. This occurred on the Dye Plant Road near Ayer’s Drive-In. The parties returned to Ayer’s Drive-In but there is again conflict in the accounts as to exactly what occurred. Under the most plausible view of the evidence the girls returned immediately to the drive-in and pulled in there. The boys followed and pulled in along side, left their car and began talking with the girls. There is evidence that Johnny Coulson “fussed” at Teresa for her negligent behavior in driving the car. Teresa also testified that she had not felt particularly well that evening. For that reason, together with the “fussing” and the incident on Dye Plant Road itself she testified that she became “nervous and upset”.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
238 F. Supp. 141, 1965 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6380, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-farm-mutual-automobile-insurance-v-liberty-mutual-insurance-vawd-1965.