Sanchez v. Herrera
| Decision Date | 30 November 1989 |
| Docket Number | No. 17999,17999 |
| Citation | 1989 NMSC 73,109 N.M. 155,783 P.2d 465 |
| Parties | Elmer and Phil SANCHEZ, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. Lorenzo HERRERA, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
The Sanchez family appeals from a declaratory judgment in favor of State Farm Mutual Insurance Company on two issues: first, whether a gunshot accident within the insured's truck falls within the liability coverage on the truck; and second, whether the insured can stack the limits of medical payments coverage from five separate policies. The parties are in agreement on facts sufficient to decide the legal question of the insurer's duty to the insured for this type of accident. There is also no dispute that in order for the Sanchezes to stack medical payments from five policies, there must, as a matter of law, exist some ambiguity in those policies. We hold the Sanchez' policy offers coverage for this type of accident, but that the policies unambiguously precluded the stacking of medical payments. Accordingly, we reverse in part and affirm in part, and remand to the trial court for further proceedings.
Plaintiff Elmer Shanchez, his friend Mario Herrera, and a third companion were returning from a three-day hunting trip in a pickup truck owned by Elmer's father, Phillip Sanchez. They were carrying their guns loaded in the cab. Seeing what they took to be a Game and Fish Department roadblock, the young men braked the pickup, and with the engine still running, attempted to empty their guns and avoid a possible fine. While emptying his gun inside the truck, Herrera accidently fired and a bullet passed through Elmer Sanchez' foot.
Phillip Sanchez carried liability insurance on the truck that provided coverage for damages "caused by accident resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of your car." Sanchez also carried medical coverage up to a limit of $5,000.00 on the truck, and he carried identical coverage with varying limits on four other family vehicles under separate policies. All of this insurance was with one company, State Farm. After the accident, claims were made against the truck's liability coverage, the medical payments coverage, and against the four other policies' medical payments provisions.
State Farm paid $5,000.00, the limit under the truck's medical coverage. State Farm refused to pay any money under liability because, State Farm argued, the accident did not result from use of the truck. State Farm also refused to pay medical benefits based on the other four policies. It argued that those policies restricted coverage to owned vehicles listed on each policy, and did not cover Sanchez vehicles generally.
The parties agree that coverage extends only over those activities that are connected with use of the vehicle. They also agree that use of a pickup for hunting is foreseeable, and that transportation of guns would be incident to use of the vehicle for hunting. The parties disagree, however, both on whether emptying guns within the pickup's cab could be considered incident to the vehicle's use for hunting, and on what degree of connection is required between the use of the vehicle and the injury. State Farm maintains the proper test in New Mexico is whether the use of the vehicle is the "efficient and predominating cause" of the accident, citing Pecos Valley Cotton Oil, Inc. v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 780 F.2d 892, 894 (10th Cir.1986). Sanchez argues the connection should be considered in terms of the duty owed by the insurer, and not in terms of proximate causation.
Efficient and predominating cause does not apply.
Pecos Valley, cited by State Farm, involved a truck driver who was injured as he was unloading cottonseed into a bin. An iron door used to cover the bin was in an open position, but due to an improper weld, the door fell and injured the truck driver. The question before the Tenth Circuit was whether the truck's liability policy, which contained a loading and unloading limitation clause, would cover the accident, or whether coverage should be under the seed bin's insurance. The federal court held that for automobile liability insurance coverage to extend in New Mexico, the use of the vehicle must be the "efficient and predominating cause" of the accident, citing Southern California Petroleum Corp. v. Royal Indem. Co., 70 N.M. 24, 369 P.2d 407 (1962). Pecos Valley, 780 F.2d at 894. The federal court noted that this court's discussion of the test in Southern California Petroleum Corp., while providing some guidance, was dictum. Id. at 894 n. 3.
In Southern California Petroleum Corp., a drilling company's negligence created a hazardous condition that led to an explosion when other subcontractors were pouring a mixture of concrete and water into a well casing. The trial court held that the antecedent negligence was the "efficient and predominating cause" of the accident. 70 N.M. at 27, 369 P.2d at 410. The managing oil company, held responsible for the negligence in the trial court, then sought a declaratory judgment that it was insured under the vehicle liability coverage of its subcontractors who poured the concrete and water. The appellate court noted argument that the pumping operation was part of the chain of causation, but cited to an annotation of "loading and unloading" cases that set forth the "efficient and predominating" causation test. 70 N.M. at 30, 369 P.2d at 413. This court held, however, that it need not reach the issue of causation in that case.
Whether or not the "efficient and predominating" test for causation in loading and unloading cases has been adopted in New Mexico, a question we find not well settled, the test should not be applied to these facts. In both Pecos Valley and Southern California Petroleum Corp., the issue before the court clearly dealt with a commercial context in which one company's business operation overlapped another's. Insurance had specifically foreseen this problem, and the vehicle insurance contained a specific clause to define the company's limits in the "loading and unloading" context. In the case before us, there is no issue of overlapping liability in a commercial setting. This is also not a "loading and unloading" case, as those terms are generally understood in the insurance context.1
There must be a reasonable causal connection between use of the vehicle and the injury.
Other jurisdictions have addressed the question of causation for fact patterns similar to the one before us. Generally, courts have firmly rejected any notion of proximate causation and have required instead only that there be some causation between the injury and the use of the vehicle. Quarles v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 533 So.2d 809 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1988) (); Union Mut. Fire Ins. Co. v. Commercial Union Ins. Co., 521 A.2d 308 (Me.1987) (); State Capital Ins. Co. v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 318 N.C. 534, 350 S.E.2d 66 (1986) (); Kohl v. Union Ins. Co., 731 P.2d 134 (Colo.1986) (en banc) (). We agree with these courts that the proper inquiry in hunting accidents involving automobiles is whether the use made of the vehicle at the time of the accident logically flows from and is consistent with the foreseeable uses of that vehicle.
Reasonable causation applied.
In reviewing hunting accidents, courts have identified at least five fact patterns, which are listed here in descending order of judicial preference for extending coverage: 1) accidents in which the actual movement of the vehicle caused the firing of the gun, as in transport; 2) accidents in which the discharged gun was being removed from or placed in a gun rack in the vehicle; 3) accidents in which the gun was being loaded into or unloaded from the vehicle; 4) accidents arising from use of the vehicle as a gun rest; and 5) accidents in which the vehicle is described as a "mere situs" for the accident, such as when children play with guns in a standing vehicle. See Quarles, 533 So.2d 809, 811-12. Clearly, this case does not involve either gun play or use of the vehicle as a gun rest. It is more analogous either to the accidental discharge of a gun while a vehicle is in motion, or to the loading and unloading of guns into or from a vehicle. Under recognized categories, we conclude this accident was reasonably connected with use of a vehicle.
If we analyze these facts without reference to other jurisdictions, we still conclude that emptying a gun within the cab of a pickup truck is foreseeably incident to use of that vehicle for hunting. Inclement weather is a frequent condition of hunting trips, and a vehicle is a logical shelter. It is foreseeable that, however unwise it may be, some hunters will load and unload their guns within their trucks. Therefore, by applying the test that we adopt today of reasonable causation between the use of the vehicle and the injury, we hold there is coverage.
Sanchez also appeals the district court's summary judgment in favor of State Farm on the issue of stacking. Stacking involves adding the maximum coverage under one policy to the maximum of a second policy until the insured's damages are fully compensated or his or her combined policy limits are exhausted. See Lopez v. Foundation Reserve Ins. Co., 98 N.M. 166, 168, 646 P.2d 1230, 1232 (1982). Sanchez argues that he should be able to add the coverage provided by each of five policies carried with State Farm on separate family vehicles for total medical coverage of $21,000.00. State Farm paid out $5,000.00 on the truck in...
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