General Acc. Fire & Life Assur. Corp. v. Hanley Oil Co.

• Decision Date: 26 February 1947
• Citation: 321 Mass. 72,72 N.E.2d 1
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court
• Parties: GENERAL ACCIDENT FIRE AND LIFE ASSURANCE CORPORATION, LIMITED, v. HANLEY OIL CO. INC. & another.

321 Mass. 72

72 N.E.2d 1

GENERAL ACCIDENT FIRE AND LIFE ASSURANCE CORPORATION, LIMITED, v. HANLEY OIL CO. INC. & another.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

February 26, 1947

February 4, 1947.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., QUA, RONAN WILKINS, & SPALDING, JJ.

Insurance, Motor vehicle liability insurance. Equity Pleading and Practice Decree. A "judgment" entered in a proceeding for declaratory relief under G. L. (Ter.

Ed.) c. 231A inserted by St. 1945, c. 582, Section 1, was treated by this court as a final decree in equity.

Damage, resulting from a fire originating from natural causes and without the intervention of human agency in oil on the floor of the basement of a dwelling house over three hours after the oil had been spilled there when a tank was caused to overflow through conduct of an employee of an oil dealer in his use of mechanism forming a part of the equipment of a motor truck from which oil was pumped from the truck on an adjacent highway through a hose into the tank, was within the coverage of a policy insuring the dealer against liability for property damage "caused by accident and arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the motor vehicle."

BILL IN EQUITY filed in the Superior Court on April 18, 1946. The case was heard by Brogna, J.

K. C. Parker, for the plaintiff.

E. McPartlin, for the defendant Hanley Oil Co.

Inc.

R. M. Morrison, for the defendant Simon.

WILKINS, J. This is a proceeding under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 231A, inserted by St 1945, c. 582, Section 1, whereby the plaintiff (hereinafter called the insurance company) seeks an adjudication that it is not obligated under a motor vehicle liability policy issued by it to the defendant Hanley Oil Co. Inc. (hereinafter called the insured) to defend, or pay any judgment in, an action brought against the insured by the defendant Simon.

By "Coverage C" of the policy, issued January 1, 1943, the insurance company, up to a limit of $5,000, agreed "To pay on behalf of the insured all sums which the insured shall become obligated to pay by reason of the liability imposed upon him by law for damages because of injury to or destruction of property, including the loss of use thereof, caused by accident and arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the motor vehicle." Whether a further provision that "use of the motor vehicle for the purposes stated includes the loading and unloading thereof" added to the coverage need not be determined. But see Diggins v. Theroux, 314 Mass. 735 , 736-737.

On April 16, 1943 about 10 A.M., the insured's motor truck stopped on the public highway adjacent to the house of the defendant Simon, in the cellar of which was a tank for the storage of oil with an outside fill pipe. An employee of the insured connected the fill pipe with a hose which was part of the equipment of the truck. By means of a mechanism with which the truck was equipped, oil was then pumped through the hose into the tank, but in greater quantity than the tank had capacity to hold, with the consequence that a substantial quantity of oil flowed upon the floor of the cellar. The truck was driven away. About 1:20 P.M. the oil on the cellar floor became ignited, and...