Terminal Transport Co. v. Cliffside Co.

608 S.W.2d 850, 1980 Tenn. App. LEXIS 396
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 28, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 608 S.W.2d 850 (Terminal Transport Co. v. Cliffside Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Terminal Transport Co. v. Cliffside Co., 608 S.W.2d 850, 1980 Tenn. App. LEXIS 396 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

ABRIDGED OPINION

TODD, Judge.

The defendant, Cliffside Company, Inc., has appealed from a judgment in favor of plaintiff, Terminal Transport Company, Inc., in the amount of $175,000.00 plus accrued interest of $110,393.95, or a total of $285,393.95, dismissing the third party action of Cliffside against Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.

Terminal is a trucking company. Cliff-side is a truck service station. This action arose when one of Terminal’s trucks was taken to Cliffside for repair; Cliffside’s employee undertook to drive the disabled truck to a terminal garage to exchange it for another truck; while being operated by the Cliffside employee, the Terminal truck struck an automobile and severely injured one, Mallett; Mallett sued Terminal in Alabama; Terminal settled with Mallet for $350,000.00; Terminal sued Cliffside in the present action for common law indemnity; [852]*852Cliffside filed a “cross suit” against Liberty Mutual, Terminal’s insurer claiming coverage under the “additional insured” clause; the Chancellor dismissed both suits; this Court reversed; the Supreme Court held that Terminal was not entitled to indemnity but was entitled to contribution and remanded to the Chancellor to determine the amount of contribution due and the rights of Cliffside against Liberty Mutual.

The results before the Chancellor are stated above.

Two issues are presented by appellant:
1. Liability of Liberty Mutual to Cliff-side.
2. Right of Terminal to interest from date of suit.

As to the first issue, Cliffside points out that in its published opinion, the Supreme Court held:

“Of course, Cliffside and Terminal being joint tort-feasors, Terminal is not entitled to indemnification; the remedy in Tennessee in eases involving joint tort-feasors is restitution by way of contribution.” 577 S.W.2d at 459.

Cliffside insists that the finding by the Supreme Court that Terminal and Cliffside were joint tort-feasors necessarily included a determination that Kemper, the mechanic of Cliffside, was driving the Terminal truck as the agent and employee of both Terminal and Cliffside.

The Chancellor found as a fact that Kem-per was “acting for both parties equally.”

The opinion of the Chancellor states:

“The accident in question was the result of the negligence of Kenneth Kem-per, a truck-stop mechanic employed by Cliffside. According to Kemper, he was, at the time of the accident, driving Terminal’s tractor to Terminal’s Nashville facility on instructions from a mechanic at Terminal’s Atlantic facility.
Based upon the facts in the record, the Court concludes that the servant was acting for both parties equally and for the purpose of contribution (each party) should pay one-half of the settlement.
Under the terms of the Liberty Mutual policy, Cliffside is not an additional insured. The policy contains a provision to the effect that the insurance with respect to any person or organization other than the named insured does not apply to “any person or organization, or to any agent or employee thereof, operating an automobile sales agency, repair shop, service station, storage garage or public parking place, with respect to any accident arising out of the operation thereof.”

The policy in question is entitled, “Automobile Policy Combination Comprehensive (Comprehensive Liability-Physical Damage)”. It begins with the following:

“In consideration of the payment of the premium, in reliance upon the declarations made a party hereof and subject to all the terms of this policy, agrees with the insured as follows:”

The remainder of the policy is actually three policies, numbered I, II, and III, as follows:

I. Comprehensive Automobile Liability Insurance.
II.Automobile Physical Damage Insurance.
III.Automobile Medical Payments Insurance.

Section I and Section III each have a paragraph entitled, “Persons Insured”.

In Section I, the portion material to this suit, the “Persons Insured” clause reads in pertinent part as follows:

“Each of the following is an insured under this insurance to the extent set forth below:
(c) any other person while using an owned automobile or a hired automobile with the permission of the named insured, provided his actual operation or (if he is not operating) his other actual use thereof is within the scope of such permission . None of the following is an insured:
(v) any person while employed in or otherwise engaged in duties in connection [853]*853with an automobile business, other than an automobile business operated by the named insured.”

The business of servicing and repairing trucks, as conducted by appellant, was an automobile business; hence appellant can have no rights under the provision relied upon. Northwestern Mut. Ins. Co. v. Travelers Ins. Co., Colo.App.1973, 515 P.2d 1143.

The Chancellor relied upon and the briefs discuss an endorsement of the policy entitled, “Automobile Medical Payments” which contains an exception for garagemen. Medical payments coverage is not involved in this suit, hence the endorsement has no application to the issues.

Appellant relies upon White v. Travelers Indem. Co., 6th U.S.C.A.1969, 416 F.2d 870, but that authority is distinguishable upon the difference in wording of the policy involved. In the cited case, the limitation or exception was for vehicles turned over to a repairman “to be used in his business.” In the present case, the policy excepts “any person while employed ... with an automobile business.”

Other authorities cited by appellant are equally distinguishable.

Appellant’s insistence that its employee, Kemper, was not operating the truck of Terminal on appellant’s business is not sound. The operation of the truck was a necessary part of performance of appellant’s contract with Terminal to service and repair Terminal’s equipment. The truck in question was only part of a tractor-trailer “rig” and had been detached from the trailer to be exchanged for a replacement tractor. The exchange of tractors was clearly a part of appellant’s “automobile business.”

Appellant’s first insistence is respectfully overruled.

Appellant’s second insistence is that the Chancellor erred in allowing interest from December 17,1968, the date of filing of this suit.

Appellant concedes that the allowance of interest on obligations which are not interest-bearing by statute is a matter of equity for determination by the Chancellor.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
608 S.W.2d 850, 1980 Tenn. App. LEXIS 396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/terminal-transport-co-v-cliffside-co-tennctapp-1980.