Moffitt v. State Automobile Insurance Association
| Decision Date | 02 May 1941 |
| Docket Number | 30989 |
| Parties | ORVILLE MOFFITT, APPELLANT, v. STATE AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, APPELLEE |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the district court for Saunders county: HARRY D. LANDIS JUDGE. Reversed.
REVERSED.
Syllabus by the Court.
1. Exceptions to general liability provided in automobile policy are to be strictly construed against insurer.
2. The exclusionary clause of automobile insurance policy which provided that the policy should not apply while insured truck was being used for towing or propelling any trailer or vehicle did not exclude liability for an accident which occurred while the truck was towing a hay grinder.
Appeal from District Court, Saunders County; Landis, Judge.
Action by Orville Moffitt against the State Automobile Insurance Association to require defendant to pay judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff against one whose truck was insured by defendant. From a judgment of dismissal, plaintiff appeals.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Horace V. Noland and Peterson & Devoe, for appellant.
Wear Boland & Nye, contra.
Heard before SIMMONS, C. J., ROSE, EBERLY, CARTER, MESSMORE and YEAGER, JJ., and MEYER, District Judge.
This is an action to require the defendant to pay a judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff against one Ralph Dean for injuries suffered as a result of being struck by Dean's truck, which truck was insured by the defendant. The case was tried on an agreed statement of facts without the intervention of a jury. The trial court dismissed the action and plaintiff appealed.
At the time of the accident the truck was towing a hay grinder. Parties agree that the sole question involved is the interpretation of the following clause of the insurance contract: "This contract does not cover losses resulting * * * while any automobile described herein is being used or maintained under any of the following conditions: * * * (d) Loss or damage while the automobile described is being used for towing or propelling any trailer or vehicle (incidental assistance to a stranded automobile on the road being permitted)." Was the hay grinder a trailer or a vehicle within the meaning of said provision?
While in our opinion little ambiguity exists, yet it is an established rule that in case of doubt an insurance policy is to be liberally construed in favor of the insured. Hamblin v. Equitable Life Assurance Society, 124 Neb. 841, 248 N.W. 397. If an exception to liability is susceptible of two meanings, that construction will be adopted which is most favorable to the assured. Haas v. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 84 Neb. 682, 121 N.W. 996; Crowe v. Merchants Life & Casualty Co., 202 Iowa 43, 209 N.W. 406.
The terms "trailer" and "vehicle" are often carelessly used, yet their meaning is well established. A trailer is usually referred to as a conveyance designed to supplement the carrying capacity of the vehicle to which it is attached and is ordinarily defined either in terms of vehicle or conveyance. In one instance we find a vehicle classed as "Any mechanical device moving by any other power than human power over the highways of the state excepting only such as move exclusively on railroad tracks." However, by the great weight of authority it too is defined as "That by which anything is conveyed or transported, or which serves as a means or way of carriage." 13 C. J. 896. See, also, 18 C. J. S. 90. In the Nebraska motor vehicle laws and official state highway rules and regulations of the Nebraska department of roads and irrigation issued in accordance with legislative authority, 1939, page 144, it says: "A trailer means every vehicle without motive power designed for carrying persons or property and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight or load rests upon the towing vehicle." And at page 141 a vehicle is defined as "Any conveyance propelled or drawn by its own or other power."
Webster's International Dictionary says a trailer is "A vehicle or one in a succession of vehicles hauled, usually, by some other vehicle." In 63 C. J. 763, it is defined as a "separate vehicle, which is not driven or propelled by its own power." In Maryland Casualty Co. v. Aguayo, 29 F.Supp. 561, it was held that a cement mixer was not a trailer within the meaning of the California statute defining trailer as "A vehicle without motive power designed for carrying persons or property on its own structure and for being drawn by a motor vehicle and so constructed that no part of its weight rests upon the towing vehicle." See, also, Long v. Hicks, 173 Wash. 17, 21 P.2d 281; Coleman Bros. v. Union Street R. Co., 292 Mass. 557, 198 N.E. 917.
A vehicle is defined as "That in or on which a person or thing is or may be carried from one place to another * * *; a means of conveyance." Webster's International Dictionary. "Any carriage moving on wheels or runners used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on land;" 1 Berry,...
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