UNIVERSAL UNDERWRITERS INS. v. Paradis

940 A.2d 918, 50 Conn. Supp. 486
CourtConnecticut Superior Court
DecidedFebruary 5, 2008
DocketCV 05-4011158
StatusPublished

This text of 940 A.2d 918 (UNIVERSAL UNDERWRITERS INS. v. Paradis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
UNIVERSAL UNDERWRITERS INS. v. Paradis, 940 A.2d 918, 50 Conn. Supp. 486 (Colo. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

940 A.2d 918 (2008)
50 Conn.Sup. 486

UNIVERSAL UNDERWRITERS INSURANCE COMPANY
v.
Eric J. PARADIS et al.

No. CV XX-XXXXXXX.

Superior Court of Connecticut, Judicial District of Hartford.

May 26, 2006.[*]
February 5, 2008.

*919 Halloran & Sage, LLP, Hartford, for the plaintiff.

Watstein & Watstein, P.C., Bristol, for the defendants Eric. J. Paradis and Christopher Lamont.

Richard Zayas, Hartford, for the defendant Jorge F. De Los Rios, administrator of the estate of Felix De Los Rios.

BRYANT, J.

This is a declaratory judgment action in which the plaintiff seeks a court ruling that the umbrella coverage afforded under a multicoverage insurance policy does not extend coverage to a person not designated as an insured under that coverage on the declaration page of its policy. The facts are detailed more fully as follows.

The plaintiff, Universal Underwriters Insurance Company (Universal), issued a unicover insurance policy to Crowley. *920 Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc. (Crowley). The policy was called a Unicover Policy, No. 224338A (unicover policy). It consisted of several different types of casualty insurance coverages, including "garage operations and auto hazard" automobile liability coverage and "umbrella" personal liability excess coverage. The policy also included some declarations pages, which listed all of the types of coverage comprising the policy and specified who was an insured under each type of coverage.

The action was commenced because of a fatal accident that occurred on October 26, 2002. On that date, Crowley employees Christopher Lamont and Felix De Los Rios were passengers in a motor vehicle owned by Crowley and driven by their coworker Eric J. Paradis in the course and scope of their employment by Crowley. As a result of the accident, both Lamont and De Los Rios were injured, De Los Rios fatally. Lamont and Jorge De Los Rios, the administrator of the estate of Felix De Los Rios (estate), each filed offers of judgment exceeding the $500,000 limit of the garage operations and automobile hazard coverage, and seek satisfaction from the umbrella coverage. Universal contends that the umbrella coverage does not apply and seeks a court ruling to that effect. The court agrees with Universal and rules that the umbrella coverage does not apply for the reasons set forth as follows.

Lamont and the estate separately moved for summary judgment claiming that Paradis is an insured under the umbrella policy, and must be indemnified, pursuant to coverage part 980, not coverage part 500 of the unicover policy.[1] On November 18, 2005, Universal filed a cross *921 motion for summary judgment arguing that there is no genuine issue of material fact that the terms and conditions of coverage part 980 are inapplicable to Paradis. Universal also submitted memoranda in support of its cross motion directed against Lamont and the estate's claims.[2]

In their memoranda of law in opposition to Universal's cross motion, Lamont and the estate argue that the evidence establishes that language defining an insured for the purposes of the umbrella coverage is ambiguous. Lamont, in particular, states that endorsement 043, which extends coverage to "any of YOUR partners, paid employees, directors, executive officers, or stockholders, and members of their households," renders declarations purporting to limit coverage nonsensical.[3]

*922 This is a case requiring the construction of the insurance contract. The estate asserts that the circumstances of this case correspond to the exception language in subsection (v) of exclusion (c) to the umbrella coverage, thus requiring coverage for Paradis.[4] Both Lamont and the estate argue that this court should construe the allegedly conflicting endorsements and exclusions to the umbrella coverage in favor of extending such coverage to Paradis because Universal drafted the terms of the unicover policy. They rely on R.T. Vanderbilt Co. v. Continental Casualty Co., 273 Conn. 448, 462-63, 870 A.2d 1048 (2005). In contrast, Universal contends that because Paradis does not come under the definition of an insured in coverage part 980,[5] he is not covered. Lamont and the estate concede that Paradis is not among the named insureds under the umbrella coverage. Universal states that declarations page 1-0 incorporates endorsements 089 and 162 into the umbrella coverage, not endorsement 043. Page 1-0 provides in relevant part: "Umbrella (Part 980) . . . Endorsements Applicable: 0089 . . . 0162 . . ." Universal also states that because Paradis is not an insured under the umbrella coverage, none of the language in that part of the policy can be construed to include or refer to him.

"Under our law, the terms of an insurance policy are to be construed according to the general rules of contract construction. . . . The determinative question is the intent of the parties, that is, what coverage the . . . [insured] expected to receive and what the [insurer] was to provide, as disclosed by the provisions of the policy. . . . If the terms of the policy are clear and unambiguous, then the language, from which the intention of the parties is to be deduced, must be accorded its natural and ordinary meaning." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) R.T. Vanderbilt Co. v. Continental Casualty Co., supra, 273 Conn. at 462, 870 A.2d 1048. Thus, this court must determine whether the language of the umbrella coverage, together with the declarations page, is ambiguous as it applies to Paradis. See Dunn v. Progressive Northwestern Ins. Co., Superior Court, judicial district of New London, Docket No. 0563462, 2003 WL 22708946 (November 4, 2003) (35 Conn. L. Rptr. 753).

In Dunn, the plaintiff sought to recover uninsured motorist benefits under her employer's insurance policy. Id. The section of the policy that applied to uninsured motorists defined "an insured" in relevant part as: "(1) You; (2) If you are an individual, any family member. . . ." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id., at 755. "`Family member' [was] defined in the policy to be `a person related to you by blood, marriage or adoption who is a resident of your household, including a ward or foster child.'" Id. The employer's insurer *923 moved for summary judgment on the ground that the plaintiff did not meet the definition of an insured. Id. The plaintiff relied on Hansen v. Ohio Casualty Ins. Co., 239 Conn. 537, 546, 687 A.2d 1262 (1996), to counter that "the designation of You as the insured . . . [was] nonsensical because a corporation cannot be compensated for bodily injury, which is the subject matter of the coverage." (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Dunn v. Progressive Northwestern Ins. Co., supra, 35 Conn. L. Rptr. at 755. The plaintiff asserted "that the definition clearly implie[d] that the policy cover[ed] employees acting within the scope of their employment [and] . . . argue[d] that because she was acting within the course of her employment at the time of her injury, coverage should be extended to her." Id., at 754.

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Bluebook (online)
940 A.2d 918, 50 Conn. Supp. 486, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/universal-underwriters-ins-v-paradis-connsuperct-2008.