Vowinckel v. Donegal Mutual Insurance

191 A.2d 706, 201 Pa. Super. 229, 1963 Pa. Super. LEXIS 402
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJune 12, 1963
DocketAppeal, No. 125
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 191 A.2d 706 (Vowinckel v. Donegal Mutual Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vowinckel v. Donegal Mutual Insurance, 191 A.2d 706, 201 Pa. Super. 229, 1963 Pa. Super. LEXIS 402 (Pa. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

Opinion by

Flood, J.,

The defendant insured the contents of the plaintiffs’ garage building against fire and, by an extended coverage endorsement, against direct loss by vehicles. The complaint avers that when one of the plaintiffs’ employes was removing a wheel from a jeep in the garage, it fell from a floor jack and struck their motor tester, damaging it to the extent of $580.

The court below sustained a demurrer to the complaint upon the ground that the accident was not covered by the extended coverage provision. The pertinent paragraph of the endorsement, entitled Provisions Applicable Only to Loss by Aircraft and Vehicles, reads as follows:

“The term ‘vehicles’, as used in this Endorsement, means vehicles running on land or tracks but not aircraft. Loss by aircraft or by vehicles shall include only direct loss resulting from actual physical contact of an aircraft or a vehicle with the property covered hereunder or with the building containing the property covered hereunder, except that loss by aircraft includes direct loss by objects falling therefrom. This Company shall not be liable, however, for loss (a) by any vehicle [231]*231owned or operated by the insured or by any tenant of the described premises; (b) by any vehicle to fences, driveways, walks or lawns; (c) to any aircraft or vehicle including contents thereof other than stocks of aircraft or vehicles in process of manufacturing or for sale.”

The court below held that the first sentence of this paragraph unambiguously excluded coverage for damage resulting from contact with a vehicle which, at the time, was not running on land or tracks. The question raised on this appeal is whether this sentence is merely descriptive of the kind of vehicle against which the plaintiffs are insured with regard to property damage or whether it is part of the description of the event they are insured against, to wit, loss by physical contact with a vehicle which is running on land or tracks at the time.

At first blush it might seem when the policy says that “the term ‘vehicles’ . . . means vehicles running on land or tracks . . .” nothing is insured against except damage from a vehicle running at the time on land or tracks. The court below adopted this view and held that “running” as used in this sentence was not equivalent to “which runs” and to so construe it would be to rewrite the policy. Further consideration indicates that this is not so and that the policy should not be construed as the lower court did here.

We know of no other case in which a court has so construed such a clause. On the contrary, in St. Nicholas Ins. Co. v. The Merchants’ Mutual Fire and Marine Ins. Co., 11 Hun. 108, 113 (S. Ct., 1877) it was held that a policy insuring “against loss by fire on the barge Berkshire, running on the Hudson and East rivers” covered the destruction of the barge by fire while it was in dock. The court said: “. . . By its policy, it insured the barge while ‘running on the Hudson and East rivers.’ The term ‘running’ was evidently here em[232]*232ployed in the sense ordinarily given to it, as it is applied to the business of navigation, and for that reason it could not have been intended that it should be restricted to risks encountered only when the barge was in motion, but it was equally within the protection intended to be afforded by the policy while it was lying at the wharves it was obliged to resort to for the purpose of receiving and discharging its cargo. The term ‘running’, as it was used by the defendant, must have been designed to include all that ordinarily would be comprehended by the business of a vessel in active employment. It described the condition of a vessel commercially engaged; and it was used by way of contrasting the difference between vessels laid up and out of use and those making trips upon the water.”

In Moffitt v. State Automobile Ins. Ass’n, 140 Neb. 578, 300 N.W. 837 (1941), the court held that a hay-grinder was within the common meaning of the word “vehicle”. The court said: “What then, is the commonly-accepted meaning of the word ‘vehicle’? We think the common meaning is: ‘That in or on which a person or thing is or may be carried from one place to another, esp. along the ground, also through the air; any moving support or container fitted or used for the conveyance of bulky objects; a means of conveyance’ ”. Id. at 579, 300 N.W. at 838. For this the court cited Webster’s New International Dictionary from which the definition was taken. Thus, we find that “vehicle” is defined by this widely used dictionary as a “moving support or container”, not a support or container which is movable or capable of being moved.

In Davis v. Petrinovich, 112 Ala. 654, 21 So. 344 (1896), the court had to determine whether a bicycle was a vehicle under an act authorizing a vehicle license only for vehicles used in the transportation of goods and merchandise for hire. While the court held that a bicycle used for pleasure only was not taxable under [233]*233the act nevertheless it used the following language: “A vehicle is defined to he, ‘any carriage moving on land, either on wheels or on runners; a conveyance; that which is used as an instrument of conveyance, transmission, or communication.7 77 Id. at 657, 21 So. at 344. It used as authority for this definition the Century Dictionary. This dictionary, as well as the cited case which follows it, thus defines a vehicle not as “any carriage which moves on wheels or runners77 hut “any carriage moving on land either on wheels or runners77. This definition is also used in the American College Dictionary (Harper and Brothers, 1948). It is interesting to note the American College Dictionary defines “automobiles77 as a “vehicle especially one for passengers, carrying its own power generating and propelling mechanism for travel on ordinary roads77. It defines streetcar as “a public passenger car running regularly along certain streets, usually on rails.77 When these highly regarded authorities use these phrases to define various vehicles, obviously they equate “running77 or “moving77 with “capable of running or moving77 or of “which runs or moves77 in a definition. If this is so, the ordinary person buying such an insurance policy has a right to so interpret this clause.

These cases, and the highly respected lexicographers upon whom they rely, indicate that the fact that the present participles, “running77 or “moving77, literally denoting a state of being in motion, are commonly used by the highest authorities in defining the word “vehicles77, when a purist might well insist on the use of some phrase such as “capable of running or moving77. This makes clear that the use of the word “running77 rather than a clause such as “which runs77 or a phrase such as “capable of running77 is not a sufficient reason for holding that the clause defining “vehicle77 is intended, not merely to define that word, but to describe the event which is insured against. It indeed suggests that [234]*234the sentence in question was adapted from one of these dictionary definitions of the word “vehicle”. Particularly is this so in a policy such as the one before us, when the definition clause is followed immediately by another sentence covering the event insured against, to wit, physical contact with the vehicle.

“Where the terms of a policy are susceptible, without violence, of two interpretations, that construction which is most favorable to the insured, in order to indemnify him for loss sustained, should be adopted”. Koser v. American Cas.

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Bluebook (online)
191 A.2d 706, 201 Pa. Super. 229, 1963 Pa. Super. LEXIS 402, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vowinckel-v-donegal-mutual-insurance-pasuperct-1963.