Travis v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co.

378 S.W.3d 786, 2010 Ark. App. 848, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 895
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 15, 2010
DocketNo. CA 10-455
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 378 S.W.3d 786 (Travis v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Travis v. Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Co., 378 S.W.3d 786, 2010 Ark. App. 848, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 895 (Ark. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

ROBERT J. GLADWIN, Judge.

| Appellants Barney Travis, as parent and natural guardian of Dylan Travis (“Travis”), and Safeco Insurance Company (“Safeco”) appeal the January 15, 2010 order entered by the Craighead County Circuit Court, which granted the motion for summary judgment filed by appellee Southern Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company (“Farm Bureau”). Because we agree that there was a genuine issue of material fact in dispute, we reverse and remand.

Facts

Virginia Hodges (“Hodges”) and her husband J. Richard Hodges were the owners of a 2002 Ford Explorer. The vehicle was insured by Farm Bureau. The Farm Bureau policy, MV00680451 (the “policy”), was issued to Richard Hodges and Hodges, stepgrandfather and | ¡.grandmother of Travis. The policy defines a “covered person” as “any members of your household and any person or organization legally responsible for the use of your auto with your permission.”

On the night of February 3, 2008, then sixteen-year-old Travis drove to Hodges’s house in his mother’s vehicle at approximately 10:30 p.m. He had been at Hodges’s house for about ten minutes when friends called to ask him to pick them up at a movie theater. He decided to take his grandmother’s vehicle, which was bigger than the one he was driving. It is undisputed that Hodges was asleep and unaware that Travis took her vehicle. Travis’s twelve-year-old cousin Hunter was also at Hodges’s house at the time, and Travis told Hunter he was going to borrow Hodges’s vehicle.

Travis was able to gain access to the vehicle because Hodges had given him the code to her garage and, the code to unlock her vehicle; she had also left the keys to the vehicle inside it. After accessing the vehicle, Travis then drove to the movie theater to pick up his friends.

After Travis left, Hodges awoke, and Hunter explained to her that Travis had taken her vehicle. Hodges attempted to call and text Travis to tell him to bring the vehicle back. Hodges stated that Travis had not asked permission to drive her vehicle that evening, and that if he had asked, she would not have given him permission to drive at that time of night by himself to pick up friends.

13After leaving the theater, Travis, at the urging of his friends, decided to “jump a hill.” During the approach to the jump, Travis decided that he no longer wished to complete the jump and applied his brakes. Travis then lost control of the vehicle and collided into a tree. Two of Travis’s five passengers allege that they sustained injuries as a result of this accident.

Those two passengers filed a complaint against Travis for damages. Safeco had issued an automobile liability insurance policy to Travis’s father, Barney Travis, in which Travis was listed as an additional insured. Safeco provided a defense and made demand on Farm Bureau to assume coverage, arguing that Travis had implied permission to drive Hodges’s vehicle, which was insured by Farm Bureau at the time of the accident.

Farm Bureau then filed a complaint for declaratory judgment against Safeco and Barney Travis, among others, seeking a declaration that Travis was not covered by the policy because Travis was not a “covered person” as defined by the policy. Farm Bureau alleged that Travis was not covered under the policy because he did not have implied permission to operate Hodges’s vehicle. Barney Travis and Safeco filed an answer to Farm Bureau’s complaint, and Farm Bureau subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment.

The circuit court, with no objection from the parties, ruled on the motion for summary judgment based upon the pleadings. The circuit court granted summary judgment on the basis that the undisputed facts established that there was no implied permission from Hodges to Travis regarding the use of the vehicle. The circuit court found, accordingly, that there was no duty on the part of Farm Bureau to defend any proceeding as to Travis and no |4duty to pay indemnity benefits under the Farm Bureau policy for any judgment that may be recovered against Travis. Appellants timely appealed the circuit court’s January 15, 2010 order of summary judgment.

Standard of Review

The granting of motions for summary judgment are only approved when the evidence demonstrated by the pleadings, affidavits, discovery responses, and admissions on file is such that the nonmov-ing party is not entitled to a day in court, i.e., there is no genuine issue of material fact remaining, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Ison v. Southern Farm Bureau Cas. Co., 93 Ark.App. 502, 221 S.W.3d 373 (2006). The evidence is normally viewed in the light that is most favorable to the party resisting the motion, and any doubts and inferences are resolved against the moving party. Ison, supra. A party seeking a declaratory judgment may move for summary judgment. Clark v. Progressive Ins. Co., 64 Ark.App. 313, 984 S.W.2d 54 (1998).

Discussion

Arkansas courts have held that, in order to create coverage under a liability policy, the necessary permission from an insured to another person to drive a vehicle may be express or implied. Ison, supra. In determining whether there is implied permission, courts consider the relationship between the owner and borrower. Collins v. Morgan, 92 Ark.App. 95, 211 S.W.3d 14 (2005) (quoting Clark, supra). Implied permission has been described as follows:

An implied permission ... is not confined to affirmative action, but means an inferential permission, in which a presumption is raised from a course of conduct or | ^relationship between the parties in which there is a mutual acquiescence or lack of objection signifying consent.
But implied permission is not limited to such situations, and will be evaluated in light of all facts and circumstances surrounding the parties. Implied permission may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Circumstances such as usage, practice, or friendship may be used to show implied permission. It may be found that the insured has given implied permission where the named insured has knowledge of a violation of instructions and fails to make significant protest.
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If the owner of an automobile forbids another person from driving the automobile, but the other person continues to do so with the knowledge of the owner, then the owner has given implied permission to drive the automobile.

Collins, 92 Ark.App. at 103, 211 S.W.3d at 20-21 (internal citations omitted).

The term “permission” also contemplates more than “a tolerance without taking steps to prevent, and the term is used in the sense of leave; license or authority with the power to prevent.” Clark, 64 Ark.App. at 319, 984 S.W.2d at 58. Implied permission is usually demonstrated by the parties’ usage and practice over a period of time prior to the day upon which the insured vehicle was being used, assuming all parties were aware of the facts. Id.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
378 S.W.3d 786, 2010 Ark. App. 848, 2010 Ark. App. LEXIS 895, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/travis-v-southern-farm-bureau-casualty-insurance-co-arkctapp-2010.