Opinion ID: 7910
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Apples and Oranges

Text: 14 We note preliminarily that some confusion results from the Policy's definition of family member in terms of a person who is a resident of [the insureds'] household. 15 The word resident embodies the concept of place, connoting the physical or geographical location or locale where individuals dwell or reside. On the other hand, the word household (as distinguished from house, residence, abode, and the like), is universally defined in terms of persons--an agglomeration of individuals who dwell as a unit under one roof. Had the phrase in the Policy read resident of [the insureds'] house (or residence or abode ), the concepts of place and person would not have been mixed; conversely, had the phrase in the Policy read person who is a member of [the insureds'] household, thus consistently using terms that connote persons rather than mixing persons and places, the point would have been equally clear. As it is, however, we are required to parse the phrase actually used in the Policy and examine more closely the intent of the parties to that insurance contract, which uses resident and household in the subject phrase, to see if both words as thus used--and the phrase in which the words are used together--are susceptible of but one reasonable meaning and thus are not ambiguous.