Styer v. Harleysville Mutual Casualty Co.

38 Pa. D. & C.2d 332, 1965 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County
DecidedSeptember 7, 1965
Docketno. 63-4442
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 38 Pa. D. & C.2d 332 (Styer v. Harleysville Mutual Casualty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Styer v. Harleysville Mutual Casualty Co., 38 Pa. D. & C.2d 332, 1965 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1965).

Opinion

Ditter, J.,

This is a suit against an insurance company in which damages are claimed because of its refusal to defend a trespass action. It was tried without a jury, and although the trial judge found in favor of defendant, he ordered the matter argued before the court en banc as though on plaintiff’s motion for judgment n.o.v.

The facts are not in dispute. At all times relevant to this case, plaintiff was engaged in the business of manufacturing and installing ice cream cabinets on motor vehicles. Some time prior to July 23, 1959, plaintiff entered into an agreement with a man named Richard Hartung, under the terms of which Hartung was to purchase a refrigerated cabinet for a truck which he owned. The particular item desired by Hartung was not in stock, so that it was necessary for plaintiff to order it specially. In the meantime, it was agreed that [334]*334Hartung would borrow a cabinet belonging to plaintiff. Mr. Hartung drove to plaintiff’s place of business, and plaintiff placed the cabinet on his truck. About a month later, Hartung, while driving from New Jersey toward plaintiff’s plant, was involved in an automobile accident. The refrigerated cabinet belonging to plaintiff was thrown from the truck, landing on Hartung, as a result of which he died.

Hartung’s estate retained counsel, who entered suit against plaintiff on the grounds that he had failed to fasten the refrigerated cabinet in an adequate manner, thus contributing to the cause of Hartung’s death. Plaintiff notified Harleysville, his liability insurer, of the action, but Harleysville declined to defend plaintiff, contending that the accident was not covered by the terms of its policy with plaintiff.

Plaintiff then engaged his own counsel to defend him in the suit by Hartung’s executrix. The matter was settled, and as part of that settlement plaintiff contributed $1,000 to Hartung’s estate. Counsel fees and costs paid by plaintiff to his attorney amount to $1,032, and the instant suit was brought against Harleysville to recover these two items of expense, legal costs and fees and the amount paid by way of settlement. The trial judge found in favor of Harleysville.

Insurance policies are contracts. It is common practice for insurance companies to mold them out of three components:

1. The Insuring Agreement: A general statement which sets forth the undertaking of the insurer for the policyholder;

2. The Exclusions: A series of limitations or statements of specific risks for which there is no coverage; and

3. The Conditions: A series of definitions, requirements, explanations and basic assumptions.

In addition, it is common to attach endorsements, or [335]*335riders, to the basic three-part policy. The rider changes the basic policy by amending one or more of its three primary components, or it may limit coverage, or it may provide additional coverage through being a separate policy, complete in itself.

To all of this, there is attached one or more pages of “Declarations”, which identify the insured, his broker, the endorsements and the type of coverage provided by the policy. The grand total is a series of pages, printed in small type, full of technical phrases, difficult language and concepts foreign to all but insurance experts. In many instances, a given policy, as delivered to the insured, contains a vast torrent of words not a part of the company’s agreement, because nonapplicable provisions are not physically removed.

In Gutenberg’s day, when printing costs were high, there may have been sound reason for using one form for an infinite combination of insuring agreements, exclusions and conditions. The reason no longer exists, however, and the obvious evils suggest that the practice persists only to befuddle, mislead and overwhelm the policyholder who embarks on the perilous venture of reading his policy, blandly and piously prescribed in prominent type by most companies.1 “One of the most hateful acts of the ill-famed Roman tyrant, Caligula, was that of having the laws inscribed upon pillars so high that the people could not read them. . . .

“Diminutive type grossly disproportionate to that used in the face body of a contract cannot be ignored; it has its place in law, and, where space is at a premium, it allows for instruction, guidance, and protection [336]*336which might otherwise be lost, but where it is used as an ambush to conceal legalistic spears to strike down other rights agreed upon, it will receive rigorous scrutinization by the courts for the ascertainment of the true meaning which may go beyond the literal import”: Cutler Corporation v. Latshaw, 374 Pa. 1, 6-7 (1953). The same rationale applies to the practice of smothering and concealing applicable provisions by surrounding them with those which are not pertinent.

I. Coverage Under the Basic Policy.

In the instant case, there is a basic policy. It is entitled, “Manufacturers’ and Contractors’ Liability provisions, Tart I,’ ” and it is preceded by a cover and five other pages, two of which are declarations and three of which are endorsements.

The basic policy has this insuring agreement:

“Defendant . . . Agrees with the Insured ... To pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury, sickness or disease, including death at any time resulting therefrom, sustained by any person, caused by accident and arising out of the hazards hereinafter defined”. . .

The first “hazard” for which coverage is provided is defined as “the ownership, maintenance or use of premises and all operations”. (Italics supplied.) Although “operations” is not defined in the policy, it obviously refers to those things which plaintiff does in the conduct of his business. Since his furnishing of the refrigerated box to Hartung was for business purposes, his placement of this box upon the truck would be a part of the “operation” of his business.

However, defendant maintains that the first “Exclusion” limits its coverage to accidents which take place on plaintiff’s premises. It contains these words:

“This policy does not apply (a) ... to the ownership, maintenance, operation, use, loading or unloading [337]*337of . . . (2) automobiles if the accident occurs away from such premises or the ways immediately adjoining . . (Italics supplied.)

The phrase “Ownership, Maintenance, Operation, Use, Loading or Un-loading” is one that is well known to insurance companies and to the courts. It is used both in insuring agreements and in exclusions. It has been the subject of numerous cases, articles and comments by text-writers.2

Despite what might seem to be a glut of verbiage in the policy, Harleysville did not define the meaning to be attributed to these words. Thus, we may assume they were intended to be construed in light of current judicial interpretation. A review of the authorities indicates that “loading and unloading” cases are concerned with delivery operations, i.e., when deliveries start and stop, what associated acts by a delivery man are to be included within the concept of the “loading or unloading” of a truck, and to what extent an insurance company should be liable for negligent delivery operations.3

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Bluebook (online)
38 Pa. D. & C.2d 332, 1965 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 67, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/styer-v-harleysville-mutual-casualty-co-pactcomplmontgo-1965.