Court Opinion

ID: 9664660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:24:48.6475+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:08.345205
License: Public Domain

Neil, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I am unable to agree with the majority opinion in these consolidated cases because the conclusion is based upon a strict rather than a liberal construction of the policy. The second of the substitution clauses, copied in the majority opinion, in my opinion, amounts to a coverage of the tractor and the substituted trailer. It provides: “While the described automobile is withdrawn from normal use because of its breakdown, repair, servicing, loss or destruction, such insurance as is afforded by this policy for bodily injury liability and for property damage liabilty with respect to such automobile applies with respect to another automobile not owned in full or in part by the insured while temporarily used as a substitute for such automobile.”
Giving to this clause a liberal construction it is my view that the causes for withdrawal of the 3% ton trailer and substitution temporarily of the larger one, is not a matter which is determinative of the rights of the parties. The accident would have happened regardless of whether the trailer was “withdrawn from normal use because of its breakdown, repair, servicing”, etc., or if it only remained idle while another trailer was being used in its place for this particular trip. The risk to the insurance company was the same. If there was any added risk while using the substituted trailer it was negligible. The insured had every right to assume that he was protected under the policy.
*569Tlie contention that the policy holder was not the owner of the substituted trailer, and for this reason there was no coverage, is in my opinion wholly insufficient to excuse the company from liability. While it is true the owner of the truck and holder of the policy had no legal title to the substituted trailer it cannot be doubted but that he was exercising limited ownership and control over it. ' Moreover he would not have been the owner had the trailer for which it was substituted been in a garage for servicing and repairs in which event liability admittedly would have attached. Under a liberal construction of the policy this defense should not be available to the insurance company. When it is considered that the legislative policy of the State requires owners of motor vehicles to carry liability insurance, and the policy has been taken out and paid for in full compliance with the law, the company should not be allowed to escape liability to one who was not a party to the insurance contract and who is entitled to be thus indemnified when the holder is insolvent.
For the above reasons I respectfully dissent.