Sunshine State Ins. Co. v. Jones

• Decision Date: 18 January 2012
• Docket Number: No. 4D10–2723.,4D10–2723.
• Parties: SUNSHINE STATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant, v. Christopher JONES, Debra Watson–Jones, Nicho Watson, Michele Baldasti, by and through her mother and legal guardian, Stacy Baldasti, and Kayla Mineo, by and through her mother and legal guardian, Cheryl Mineo, and Geico General Insurance Company, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

77 So.3d 254

SUNSHINE STATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Appellant,

v.Christopher JONES, Debra Watson–Jones, Nicho Watson, Michele Baldasti, by and through her mother and legal guardian, Stacy Baldasti, and Kayla Mineo, by and through her mother and legal guardian, Cheryl Mineo, and Geico General Insurance Company, Appellees.

No. 4D10–2723.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

Jan. 18, 2012.

Steven G. Schwartz and David J. Pascuzzi of Schwartz & Horwitz, PLC, Boca Raton, for appellant.

James K. Clark of Clark, Robb, Mason, Coulombe & Buschman, Miami, for appellee, Geico General Insurance Company.

GROSS, J.

This declaratory judgment action pits Sunshine State Insurance Co., the issuer of a homeowner's policy, against Geico General Insurance Co., the issuer of an automobile insurance policy. Their dispute involves which one is liable for indemnity and defense of claims against a person they both insured. That person, a passenger in a car, grabbed the steering wheel. When the driver tried to get her passenger to stop being annoying, she lost control of the car and it slammed into a concrete wall. The trial court determined that the passenger's actions did not constitute “use” of the car, so that Sunshine State's exclusion did not apply and it was responsible for indemnity and defense. We affirm.

The underlying lawsuit stems from an accident involving four teenagers and some horseplay. One Friday night, after a high school football game, Carley Moore was driving her parents' Toyota Corolla to a friend's house. In the front passenger seat was Nicho Watson, her boyfriend. Michele Baldasti and Kayla Mineo were in the backseat. Carley and Nicho were both seventeen; Michele and Kayla were a year younger.

During the drive, Nicho would reach over to beep the horn, as well as hold the steering wheel, to get a rise out of Carley. Even though Carley told Nicho to stop, he persisted. Keeping her left hand on the wheel, Carley tried to swat Nicho's hand away with her right hand. Nicho grabbed the wheel more than five, and probably more than ten, times; while Nicho himself never made the car swerve, the car swerved when Carley tried to swat Nicho away. As Carley was driving on an exit ramp, Nicho grabbed the wheel again; when Carley tried to push him away, she lost control of the car and its left side hit a concrete wall.

Through their parents, Michele and Kayla each filed a negligence suit against Carley and Nicho, also through their parents. Apparently, Carley settled Michele's and Kayla's claims against her, so that the action proceeded solely against Nicho. Sunshine State then filed a declaratory judgment action against Geico and others.

The aim of the declaratory judgment action was (1) to avoid liability for indemnity and the responsibility of providing a defense and (2) to pin those obligations on Geico. Sunshine State had issued a homeowner's insurance policy to Nicho's parents. Geico had issued an automobile insurance policy to Nicho and his mother, but denied both coverage and a defense.

Geico's auto insurance policy stated in its “Section I—Liability Coverages,” that it would pay for the following:

Under Section I, we will pay damages which an insured becomes legally obligated to pay because of:

1. bodily injury, sustained by a person, and

2. damage to or destruction of property,

arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the owned auto or a non-owned auto. We will defend any suit for damages payable under the terms of this policy. We may investigate and settle any claim or suit.

(Emphasis in original.) With regard to a non-owned car, in describing the persons covered, the Geico policy also provided, in pertinent part:

Section I applies to the following with regard to a non-owned auto:

1. you and your relatives when driving the non-owned auto. Such use must be with the permission, or reasonably believed to be with the permission of the owner and within the scope of that permission.

(Emphasis in original.)

In Section II, Sunshine State's homeowner's policy provides for “COVERAGE E—Personal Liability.” That section generally obligates Sunshine State to indemnify and defend its insured “[i]f a claim is made or a suit is brought against an ‘insured’ for damages because of ‘bodily injury’ or ‘property damage’ caused by an ‘occurrence’ to which this coverage applies.” However, Section II provides for the following motor vehicle exclusion, in pertinent part:

1. Coverage E—Personal Liability and Coverage F—Medical Payments to Others do not apply to “bodily injury” or “property damage”:

....

f. Arising out of:

(1) The ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of motor vehicles or all other motorized land conveyances, including trailers, owned or operated by or rented or loaned to an “insured”[.]

Sunshine State argued that Nicho's alleged negligence, characterized as horseplay, constituted the use of an automobile, bringing it within the coverage of Geico's policy and within the auto use exclusion in Sunshine State's. Accordingly, Sunshine State asserted that it did not have a duty to defend or a duty to indemnify Nicho, and moved for summary judgment. In its own motion for summary judgment, Geico argued that Nicho's alleged negligence did not constitute use, so that the claim did not fall within its coverage.

Following a hearing on the cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court issued a declaratory judgment in favor of Geico. Pointing to the facts, the court concluded that the claims at issue “did not arise out of Watson's use of the motor vehicle,” and, also, that Nicho was not driving the non-owned auto. The court therefore found that Geico's policy did not provide coverage for the accident, and that Sunshine State's policy did, because Nicho's conduct did not fall within its auto use exclusion.

“Summary judgment is proper if there is no genuine issue of material fact and if the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Volusia Cnty. v. Aberdeen at Ormond Beach, L.P., 760 So.2d 126, 130 (Fla.2000) (citation omitted). Because it is a legal question, a trial court's grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Id. Similarly, an interpretation of an insurance contract is a legal question reviewed de novo. Arias v. Affirmative Ins. Co., 944 So.2d 1195, 1197 (Fla. 4th DCA 2006). Like other contracts, a court should only resort to rules of construction in interpreting an insurance contract when the language is ambiguous; otherwise, it should apply the plain and unambiguous meaning of the policy's language. Id.

Florida courts have held that the critical language in the policies here at issue—“arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of an automobile”—is unambiguous.¹ See Am. Sur. & Cas. Co. v. Lake Jackson Pizza, Inc., 788 So.2d 1096, 1099–1100 (Fla. 1st DCA 2001); Alligator Enters., Inc. v. Gen. Agent's Ins. Co., 773 So.2d 94, 95 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000); Hagen v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 675 So.2d 963, 966 (Fla. 5th DCA 1996) ( en banc ); Cesarini v. Am. Druggist Ins. Co., 463 So.2d 451, 452 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985); Indiana Ins. Co. v. Winston, 377 So.2d 718, 719 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979); Nat'l Indem. Co. v. Corbo, 248 So.2d 238, 241 (Fla. 3d DCA 1971). The courts have consistently interpreted the language “arising out of” to be “words of much broader significance than ‘caused by’, and have been said to mean ‘originating from’, ‘having its origin in’, ‘growing out of’ or ‘flowing from’, or in short, ‘incident to’ or ‘having connection with’ the use of the car.” See, e.g., St. Paul Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Thomas, 273 So.2d 117, 120 (Fla. 4th DCA 1973) (citing, inter alia, Corbo, 248 So.2d at 241).

This case turns on whether Nicho's conduct constituted “use” of the Moore car; that is, whether it can be said the injuries arose from the use of the car. We hold that Nicho's grabbing of the steering wheel to annoy his girlfriend was not “use of ... a non-owned auto” within the meaning of the Geico policy. Rather, Nicho was engaged in teenage horseplay. Under the facts of this case, horseplay was not an “activity involved in the utilization of the covered vehicle in the manner intended or contemplated by the insured.” Corbo, 248 So.2d at 240. Nothing in the record indicates that Nicho's grasping of the steering wheel altered the direction of the car. Unlike the church-owned van used to transport church members, including children, to and from group activities in Heritage Mutual Insurance Co. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 657 So.2d 925 (Fla. 1st DCA 1995), the Moore car was a compact four-door sedan—a private passenger car. In Corbo, children's horseplay was likely to occur; in this case, it was not. See id. at 927 (“[The van's] purpose was to transport church members, including children.... [Children] quickly become rambunctious when confined in a vehicle, and unlikely to sit quietly, with seat belts fastened. Such behavior would be even more likely after an outing....”).

A second reason that the auto policy does not provide coverage here arises from the wording of the policy. The Moores' Toyota was a “non-owned auto” within the meaning of the auto policy Geico issued to Nicho's mother. That policy would provide coverage if Nicho's “driving” was “with the permission, or reasonably believed to be with the permission of the owner,” the Moores. It is not reasonable to believe that Nicho's horseplay was in any way sanctioned by the Moores.

Thus, Nicho's conduct fell outside of both the coverage provided in Geico's auto policy and the exclusion in the Sunshine State homeowner's policy. The circuit court correctly determined that it was the homeowner's policy that provided coverage here.

This conclusion is supported by our decision in West American Insurance Co. v. Silverman, 378 So.2d 28 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979). As in the instant case, Silverman involved a dispute between a passenger's auto and homeowner's insurers as to which company had the duty to...