Court Opinion

ID: 9661330
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:35:47.829474+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:27.271453
License: Public Domain

LIMBAUGH, Judge,
concurring in result.
I concur in the outcome of this case, but write separately to argue that the term “operated” is not ambiguous. “Operated,” as the majority defines it, encompasses both the narrow sense of the “primary driver” of the vehicle, as well as the broader sense of “any volitional act taken to affect the movement of the vehicle.” The majority opinion turns on this finding alone as the only task remaining was the ministerial application of the rule of construction that ambiguities in exclusions are construed against the insurer.
In my view, the majority has created an ambiguity that simply does not exist. The term “operated” cannot be contorted to include the majority’s broader sense of any volitional act to move the vehicle. When a passenger intentionally grabs the steering wheel without the driver’s consent, the driver is still the operator of the vehicle, and conversely, the passenger is not operating the vehicle himself, but instead is trying to prevent the driver’s operation of the vehicle. To operate, in other words, does not mean to interfere with the operation. To say that one operates a vehicle by interfering with the operation of the vehicle is unfathomable, if not absurd.
Further, the meaning of “operated” is plain. It incorporates the concept of control. The Minnesota Supreme Court, in West Bend Mutual Ins. Co. v. Milwaukee Mutual Ins. Co., 384 N.W.2d 877 (Minn.1986), addressed the same issue with a lucid analysis. Referring to a similar case from Oregon, the court stated:
We think it is generally understood and accepted that a motor vehicle is operated by one person, namely, the person in the driver’s seat and at the controls.... If the driver asks his passenger to assist or share in the operation of the vehicle, as, say, by steering the moving automobile while the driver uses both hands to remove a jacket, perhaps it might be said that the driver and the passenger are both “operating” the automobile, albeit imprudently; and consequently, there would be no homeowner’s coverage for either the driver or the passenger. Ordinarily, however, a vehicle has only one operator, and, unless a passenger is invited to share in that operation, or circumstances create a plausible justification for the passenger’s assisting in the vehicle’s operation, the vehicle is not considered to be operated by the passenger. Quite the contrary, as the Oregon court observed, the passenger is deemed to be interfering with the vehicle’s operation.
Id. at 880 (emphasis added);1 see also Farm Bureau Gen. Ins. Co. v. Riddering, 172 Mich. *272App. 696, 432 N.W.2d 404 (1988); State Farm Mutual Auto. Ins. Co. v. White, 60 Or.App. 666, 655 P.2d 599 (banc 1982).
In sum, I cannot adopt the majority’s rationale that the term “operated” is ambiguous, at least in the context of this case. Nonetheless, I would hold that the exclusion does not apply because, as a matter of law, a vehicle is not “operated” by the act of grabbing the steering wheel of the vehicle without the driver’s consent.

. The portion of West Bend quoted by the majority in its footnote 1 directly precedes the paragraph quoted in this concurring opinion, and is in fact limited by that paragraph. Contrary to the interpretation of the majority, the West Bend court did not "clearly acknowledge! ] the ambiguity” of the term "operated.” Instead, the West Bend court noted that the term "operated” could be ambiguous in those limited instances where a vehicle had more than one operator. The paragraph quoted in this concurring opinion makes it clear that a vehicle is only viewed as having more than one operator in limited circumstances which are not applicable in this case. Thus, the broad interpretation suggested by the majority is limited not only by the words of that paragraph but also by the second paragraph as quoted here. In most circumstances, only one person is operating the vehicle and "unless a passenger is invited to share in that operation, or circum*272stances create a plausible justification for the passenger’s assistance],” he is merely interfering.