Opinion ID: 2691247
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Creation of Illogical Results

Text: {¶ 62} The phrase “arising out of” is used multiple times throughout the Westfield policy. By reading the phrase “arising out of” to require proof that a dangerous condition on the land was the proximate cause of damage, the majority renders this phrase meaningless where it is used elsewhere in the policy. In fact, this term is used to introduce the following exclusions in Westfield’s policy: business engaged in by the insured; a rental of premises by an insured; rendering 20 January Term, 2011 of or failure to render professional services; ownership, maintenance, or use of a motorized vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft; transmission of a communicable disease; sexual molestation, corporal punishment, or physical or mental abuse; or the use, sale, or manufacture of a controlled substance. An interpretation of the term “arising out of” to mean “arising out of a dangerous condition” creates an illogical result for these other exclusions. {¶ 63} Moreover, the Westfield policy explicitly limits its coverage for medical payments to conditions of the premises. In the policy's “Medical Payments Coverage,” on the very same page of the policy where the “other owned premises” exclusion appears, the policy provides: “As to others, this coverage applies only:    2. To a person off the insured location, if the bodily injury: a. Arises out of a condition on the insured location or the ways immediately adjoining.” Thus, the very language that the majority wishes to insert in one place within the policy has already been used by the parties elsewhere in the policy. This surely shows an intent to distinguish between “arising out of” premises and “arising out of a condition on” premises. If the exclusion was to be linked to a condition, the drafters added it; it should not be for this court to do so.