Swish Manufacturing Southeast v. Manhattan Fire & Marine Insurance

675 F.2d 1218
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMay 13, 1982
DocketNo. 81-7328
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 675 F.2d 1218 (Swish Manufacturing Southeast v. Manhattan Fire & Marine Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swish Manufacturing Southeast v. Manhattan Fire & Marine Insurance, 675 F.2d 1218 (11th Cir. 1982).

Opinion

PITTMAN, District Judge:

This is an appeal from the district court’s granting of the appellees’ motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of liability arising under a contract of insurance. The [1219]*1219appellants allege several grounds as error. Because we find the issue concerning conversion to be dispositive of the question of coverage, we pretermit discussion of these alternate grounds.

Swish Manufacturing Southeast, Inc. (Swish) is the owner of the 1970 Mitsubishi MU-2G aircraft involved in this litigation. Swish’s base of operation is in Pine Mountain, Georgia, and the aircraft is used to transport company sales personnel. The appellant, The Manhattan Fire & Marine Insurance Company, now called Puritan Insurance Company (Puritan), issued a policy of insurance to Swish covering the aircraft for the term of January 6, 1976, to October 17, 1976. The policy limits were for the agreed hull value of $350,000.00.

In the summer of 1976, William Aylin, President of Wings, Inc. (Wings), approached officers of Swish with a proposal to lease the aircraft. An agreement was negotiated wherein Wings took possession of the plane and maintained the aircraft at its Tallahassee, Florida headquarters. The lease permitted Wings to use the plane whenever it wished, without any prior notice to Swish, so long as Swish had not made prior arrangements to use the plane at that time. Wings used the plane to transport passengers for hire, paying Swish $215.00 per hour of flight time. The lease contract precluded Wings from transporting cargo or using the aircraft for unlawful purposes.

Puritan, at the request of Swish, issued an endorsement to the insurance policy providing liability coverage for Wings and waiving its subrogation rights against Wings for any damages caused by Wings.

On October 14, 1976, Aylin piloted the aircraft to the Bahamas for the purpose of smuggling marijuana into this country. The plane was seized by Bahamian police at the Stella Maris Airport with its cargo of contraband on board. While in Bahamian control, the plane was damaged and certain electronic equipment removed.

Swish, in learning of these events and the whereabouts of its property, made a timely demand on Puritan for payment of the loss. Puritan formally rejected the claim, taking the position, inter alia, that coverage was excused under the exclusion provision of sub-paragraph 11 providing that the policy does not apply and no coverage is afforded:

11. To loss or damage due to conversion, embezzlement or secretion by any person in possession of the aircraft under a bailment, lease, conditional sale, purchase agreement, mortgage or other encumbrance, nor for any loss or damage during or resulting therefrom. (Emphasis supplied.)

Appellee then proceeded to take its own measures to effect the return of its aircraft which included payment of a substantial fine and for repairs to the plane.

Aylin (Wing’s president), testified that he did not steal the aircraft, but was voluntarily given possession and at all times intended to return it when his trip was completed. It is undisputed that neither Swish nor any of its agents knew or had reason to know of Aylin’s unlawful use of its aircraft.

With reference to the exclusion in sub-paragraph 11, the dispositive issue is whether, under Georgia law, there was a “conversion” of appellee’s aircraft. For reasons which hereinafter follow, the court is convinced that these facts support a legal conclusion of conversion and therefore the district court erred in ruling, as a matter of law, that this policy exclusion was inapplicable.

The district court properly reasoned that, since Wings held the aircraft under a lease agreement, the exclusion would apply if it were shown that Wings, through its agent Aylin, “converted” the plane. Under Georgia law a conversion is “the unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over personal property belonging to another which is contrary to the owner’s right.” Shaw v. Wheat Street Baptist Church, 141 Ga.App. 883, 234 S.E.2d 711, 713 (1977). The common law is clear that misuse, that is, use beyond that which the owner consented to, may give rise to conversion. 18 Am.Jur.2d Conversion § 48 (1965). In such instances, the extent of the [1220]*1220deviation determines whether an action for trover and conversion will lie. Prosser, Handbook for the Law of Torts, § 15, at 92-93 (1971).

The Restatement (Second) of Torts §§ 222A-242 (1965) provide detailed definitions and illustrations of acts which constitute conversion: In particular, § 228 is quite helpful to the facts of the case sub judice.

§ 228. EXCEEDING AUTHORIZED USE
One who is authorized to make a particular use of a chattel, and uses it in a manner exceeding the authorization, is subject to liability for conversion to another whose right to control the use of the chattel is thereby seriously violated.

The illustrations provided in the Restatement indicate that where one entrusts an automobile to another for the purpose of selling it, and the agent uses the vehicle for transportation of contraband, as a result of which it is confiscated by the authorities, a conversion has occurred. Id. at § 222A, Illustration 23, at 435. Accord, Vermont Acceptance Corp. v. Wiltshire, 103 Vt. 219, 153 A. 199 (1931).

While it is not clear whether the Georgia courts have expressly adopted the Restatement approach, certain cases reflect the adoption of principles which parallel the logic and result of the Restatement examples. In Mundorff v. Compass Travel, Inc., 144 Ga.App. 120, 240 S.E.2d 321 (1977), the court upheld a finding of conversion by the secretary-treasurer of a corporation who was authorized to pay out funds and paid a sum to himself as collateral for a prior intra-corporate loan. See also Pelletier v. Schultz, 157 Ga.App. 64, 276 S.E.2d 118 (1981). Again, the court recognized a conversion where the owner of an automobile left his car with a dealer for the purpose of having it repaired and the dealer used the car as a demonstrator and wrecked it. Strother Ford, Inc. v. Bullock, 142 Ga.App. 843, 237 S.E.2d 208 (1977). Even prior to the promulgation of the Restatement, Georgia courts followed the common law principle that unauthorized use which results in damage to a chattel constitutes a conversion. Farkas v. Powell, 86 Ga. 800, 13 S.E. 200 (1891).

In an even closer fact situation to the one presently facing this court, an automobile owner permitted the use of his car to a second party for the express purpose of driving from Point A to Point B. This the borrower did, but after returning to Point A he set out on an unauthorized trip to Point C. While on the unauthorized excursion, the car was involved in an accident and third parties injured.

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