Court Opinion

ID: 9446027
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:44:25.156215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:29.934884
License: Public Domain

MAGRUDER, Chief Judge
(dissenting).
This is merely a fight between two insurance companies as to which one has contracted to assume liability for certain personal injuries. Admittedly the coverages expressed in the two insurance policies dovetail perfectly and do not overlap. It is not a case where one has to strain, to construe the language of an insurance policy against an insurance company, in order to reach a conclusion of liability. One or the other of the two companies is surely liable for the particular injuries.
Appellant Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company primarily insured the Robert Northridge Furniture Company against its liability for personal injuries received in the course of business arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of a certain truck, the term “use” of the motor vehicle to include the loading and unloading thereof. Appellee, Employers’ Liability Assurance Corp., Ltd., has in force a comprehensive policy insuring the Northridge Company against liability for personal injuries occurring in the course of business, excluding, however, personal injuries arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use (including loading or unloading) of any motor vehicle.
I have some doubt about the correctness of our decision in Connecticut Indemnity Co. v. Lee, 1 Cir., 1948, 168 F.2d 420. In any event, the case seems distinguishable on its facts, for there the truck driver was at the time actually engaged in unloading packages from the motor vehicle, having opened the elevator door on the sidewalk as a necessary preliminary to the contemplated delivery. In the present case appellee conceded that on its argument the personal injuries would still have been received in the course of the “loading” of the motor vehicle, even though the truck had not yet arrived at the street adjacent to Peloquin’s residence. This seems to me to be a reductio ad absurdum. The injury received by Peloquin is much too remote from the maintenance or use of the truck, and would seem more naturally to fall within the comprehensive liability policy issued by appellee.