Carney v. American Fire & Indem. Co.

• Decision Date: 21 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. 63678,63678
• Citation: 371 So.2d 815
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: Mrs. Jenny M. CARNEY v. AMERICAN FIRE & INDEMNITY COMPANY.

Page 815

371 So.2d 815

Mrs. Jenny M. CARNEY v. AMERICAN FIRE & INDEMNITY COMPANY.

No. 63678.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

May 21, 1979.

Frank R. Bolton, Jr., Broussard, Bolton & Halcomb, Alexandria, for plaintiff-applicant.

Eugene J. Sues, Gold, Little, Simon, Weems & Bruser, Alexandria, for defendant-respondent.

BLANCHE, Justice.

This is an action by the plaintiff-relator-beneficiary to recover insurance death benefits under a family combination automobile policy issued by the American Fire & Indemnity Company to Phillip L. Carney.

In lieu of trial of the matter, the facts of the case were stipulated between counsel as follows:

"Mrs. Jenny M. Carney was married to and living with Phillip L. Carney on the date of Phillip L. Carney's death, being March 19, 1977. At the time of the suit she was an individual of the full age of majority and domiciled in Rapides Parish, Louisiana.

"Phillip L. Carney, while married to and living with Jenny M. Carney, was killed on March 19, 1977, at the Texas World Speedway in Bryan, Texas, while driving a Formula F racing vehicle in a racing event sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, Inc.

"The race track where the accident occurred was not a public highway or a public road.

"The vehicle which Phillip L. Carney was operating at the time of his death was a Formula F Ford vehicle which was an untitled, unlicensed, 4-wheeled motor vehicle.

"The Formula F Racing vehicle which Phillip L. Carney was operating at the time of his death was not equipped with safety equipment such as a horn, tail and headlights or any other type of turn signal indicators. The racing vehicle was fitted with all safety equipment required by the rules and regulations of the Sports Car Club of America, Inc. for participation in one of its sanctioned racing events. (A photograph of said vehicle was attached thereto and marked as Joint Exhibit No. 1.)

"On March 19, 1977, there was in full force and effect a policy of automobile insurance between American Fire & Indemnity Company and Phillip L. Carney (a copy of which was attached thereto and marked for identification as Joint Exhibit No. 2). Said policy provides for a $5,000.00 Automobile Accidental Death Indemnity benefit as per Part V of the policy."

The issue presented is whether the plaintiff is entitled to recover death benefits pursuant to Part V of the policy of insurance filed into evidence. As a prerequisite for recovery, the policy provides that the insured's death result from injuries sustained in or by an automobile as defined in the policy. Therefore, in order to resolve the issue presented herein, our first inquiry is to review the definition of "automobile" as set forth in the policy.

Under Part V of the policy, "automobile" is defined as follows:

"With respect to this insurance the word 'automobile' means a land motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer not operated on rails or crawler-treads, but does not mean: (1) a farm type tractor or other equipment designed for use principally off public roads, except while actually upon public roads, or (2) a land motor vehicle or trailer while located for use as a residence or premises and not as a vehicle."

Whether the racing vehicle operated by Carney at the time of his death was an automobile within the meaning of the above definition is the matter for our decision.

The trial court concluded that the vehicle operated by Carney was not an "automobile" as defined by the policy provision. In Reasons for Judgment, the trial judge stated:

". . . The definitions of 'automobile' in the policy before this Court is not ambiguous and means just what it says. The auto racer driver by Phillip Carney was designed principally for use off the public road. It is clear that this vehicle could not be operated on the public highways of the State of Louisiana because it did not contain the required equipment set forth in La. R.S. Title 32:301-378.

Plaintiff argues that the insurer by its definition of the word "automobile" clearly affords him coverage with the inclusive language defining "automobile" as a "land motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer not operated on rails or crawler-treads" but attempts by construing the language "or other equipment designed for use principally off public roads, except while actually upon public roads" to take coverage away.

While plaintiff does not contest that a racing vehicle such as that driven by the deceased was designed for use principally off public roads, she does insist that it is definitely not "other equipment" as used in the above definition. Judge Domengeaux, in his dissent, argued plaintiff's case when he found the exclusion ambiguous. Plaintiff fortifies this argument by stating that the word "equipment" is a word of broad meaning and must be modified by an adjective to assume significant meaning. Thus, "other equipment" immediately follows "a farm type tractor." Accordingly, it must relate to other equipment of that nature and not an automobile, albeit a racing one that is clearly a land motor vehicle.

Plaintiff otherwise argues that if the wording meant to exclude a racing vehicle, it should have said so and to this extent the language is ambiguous and should be construed against the insurer so as to afford coverage for this type of vehicle.

The Court of Appeal correctly observed that the issue of whether this language is ambiguous has not been resolved in an appellate opinion in this state. However, the Supreme Courts in four of our sister states Kansas, Oregon, Nebraska and Texas as well as an appellate court of Ohio, have held that this exact language in a policy is not ambiguous.

Both the trial court and the Court of Appeal were of the opinion that the exclusionary language was not ambiguous, both relying on decisions of our sister states. As noted by the Court of Appeal, we are not bound by these cases, but differently from the Court of Appeal, we do not find them as persuasive. Furthermore, we have no doubt that the insurer did not intend to insure racing vehicles used primarily off public roads. However, we do believe that the language relied on to exclude such vehicles is ambiguous and we construe it against the insurer.

As noted below, in our mind, it is indeed questionable whether such language excludes a racing vehicle. The Court of Appeal found "equipment" to be a broad term, the meaning of which depends on the context in which it is used. We agree, but do not agree that it means some type of a "vehicle" in the context in which it was used. As a vague or broad term, the word "equipment" used alone means nothing. It must be modified by some adjective to assume significant meaning. Thus, such words as "farm," "hunting" or "photographic" give the word "equipment" meaning.

We would have no trouble excluding from coverage cotton balers, bean pickers, corn pullers or like equipment, because they are farm type tractors and are used primarily off public roads. However, our difficulty is like that of our learned brother, Judge Domengeaux, who stated in his dissent:

". . . In common parlance it is difficult to conceive that a racing car can logically be designated as 'equipment.' "

While the insurer used the term "land motor vehicle" in its inclusionary language defining "automobile" and also in its exclusionary language under subdivision (2), would it not have been just as easy to exclude "land motor vehicles" used principally off public roads by using the word "vehicle" instead of "equipment." Why send the court to the dictionary to define "equipment" so as to opine that it includes a racing car as equipment used principally off public roads? Had the insurer desired to exclude racing cars from coverage, it seems to us this could have been more simply accomplished by using a "racing exclusion" as found in some policies.

Thus, on the one hand, we have the drafters of the policy being quite specific concerning the use of the term "land motor vehicle" or "trailer" in some provisions of the policy and yet excluding a racing car as a land motor vehicle from coverage under the general or broad definition of "a farm type tractor or other equipment."

Judge Paul B. Landry of the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Martin v. Phillips, 356 So.2d 1016 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1977), in denying coverage under an exclusionary provision of an insurance policy, appropriately stated the following legal precepts which are applicable to resolving the issue here:

"The rules governing interpretation of written agreements apply to insurance contracts. La.C.C. Article 1901; Jennings v. Louisiana and Southern...