Opinion ID: 1180281
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the claimed employer-employee or co-employee relationship of bowles and viani

Text: Allstate assigns as error the finding and conclusion of the district court that Allstate's policy exclusions which expressly exclude coverage to an employee or co-employee of an insured were not applicable. The Allstate policy in this regard reads: The following persons are insured under this Part [I] 1.    2.    3. Any other person with respect to the owned automobile, provided the actual use thereof is with the permission of the named insured;       This Part I does not apply to: 1.          4. bodily injury to an employee of the insured arising out of and in the course of (a) domestic employment by the insured, if benefits therefor are either payable or required to be provided under any workmen's compensation law, or (b) any other employment by the insured; 5. bodily injury to any fellow employee of the insured injured in the course of his employment if such injury arises out of the use of an automobile in the business of his employer, but this exclusion does not apply to the named insured with respect to injury sustained by any such fellow employee;   . The district court determined that the issues raised by Allstate had previously been litigated and resolved against Allstate's insured, Bowles, in the original action. Resolution of this matter raised by Allstate requires a review of the issues at the original trial and of the facts concerning Viani's work on the Bonny mountain residence. At the first trial Bowles offered as a defense the workmen's compensation law, which, if found applicable, would have been Viani's exclusive remedy. To that end the jury was instructed that if Bowles and Viani were co-employees or if Bowles were found to be Viani's employer, Viani's action must fail. However, the jury was also instructed that if Viani were found to be either a casual employee of Bonny or Bowles or an independent contractor then Viani could still maintain his action against Bowles. Allstate has extensively argued here that the jury could have found Viani to have been a casual employee or independent contractor but that based on the record it is clear Viani was an employee, albeit casual, of Bowles and therefore coverage to Bowles acting as an employer is excluded. At the trial of the present action the court considered the various written records of the first trial as well as certain statements of facts set forth in Viani's pre-trial memorandum in which all the parties concurred. It is the Court's conclusion that based on this record the district court was correct in concluding that Viani was not a co-employee with, or employee of Bowles. It should be noted that Allstate stands on the record as it is presently constituted and does not allude to the existence of other facts. Allstate takes the position that the employment relationship is an inescapable conclusion. In this regard it overlooks certain points. First, it was agreed that Viani had worked on two prior occasions on the Bonny project in the capacity of independent contractor. Second, Bowles was an architect, not a building contractor. Bowles asked Viani to work some more on the house but informed him he would have to get his pay from the general contractor. It is reasonable to draw the conclusion from these facts that Viani was again acting as an independent contractor on the day in question. Based on the prior work Viani had performed the court could infer the pattern remained the same. Bowles' unwillingness to pay Viani himself indicates Bowles regarded the arrangement as another independent undertaking by Viani in much the same capacity as the general contractor acted. Furthermore, the court could have reasonably concluded that even if Bowles and Viani were part of an employment relationship, that relationship had terminated by the time the men had finished working on the Bonny house and had returned to Boise. Certainly the employment relationship had to terminate at some point and it is not unreasonable to conclude it did so when the men started rearranging their gear preparatory to leaving for an inspection of the mining claims  at which point in time the accident occurred. We interpret the record as permitting these conclusions which, of course, results in coverage of the Allstate policy to Bowles. This holding comports with the rule that a policy will generally be construed so that the insurer bears the burden of proving that the asserted exclusion is applicable. Harman v. Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co., 91 Idaho 719, 429 P.2d 849 (1967). Allstate has urged its interpretation of the record be adopted, but without more than these arguments, in light of what was stated above, Allstate's contention that the exclusion is applicable to Bowles is without merit.