Court Opinion

ID: 9625575
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:44:57.246604+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:11.166056
License: Public Domain

HENRIOD, Chief Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
This case seems to hinge on one or both of two concepts: 1) whether “acquisition” means climbing in the car and driving or towing it away, or occurs on the date one becomes its unquestioned owner; and 2) whether, irrespective of rights under the policy, the insurer, by representation, procrastination or indecision, has wiped out a defense on a sort of estoppel basis.
*906I concur in the result for the latter reason, but think the main opinion in saying the word “acquisition” means something in the nature of a taking and asportation to initiate liability under the 30-day clause in the policy is unrealistic in an etymological sense, and impractical in the insurance world sense. I am of the opinion that the insured “acquired” the carriage when he bought it, not when he took it away,1 and I dissent from the opinion’s conclusion otherwise. All the cases cited in the main opinion in support of its contention otherwise are not dispositive or binding on this court, since each is a lower court decision from which apparently no appeal was pursued to a higher state or federal court.

. Appleman, Insurance, Vol. 7, Section 4293; Pharoah v. Burnett & Moore, 112 Okl. 188, 240 P. 743; Wisbey v. Nat. Mut. Ins. Co., 264 Or. 600, 507 P.2d 17; Title 41-1-1 (u), Utah Code Annotated 1953.