Court Opinion

ID: 9728929
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:19:15.487048+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:53.084894
License: Public Domain

TODD, J.
I regretfully concur. The anomalous result in this case is hard for me to swallow. Edward Allen Wenz, Jr., (Wenz) son of Mary L. Johnson (a principal and officer of Johnson-Kinney, Inc., the owner of the vehicle in this accident) will be provided additional auto insurance coverage by plaintiff State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company through the fortuitous circumstance his own truck was inoperable on the date in question. Although Johnson-Kinney followed a policy of not permitting employees such as Wenz to drive firm-owned vehicles, this young man’s status as the boss’s son apparently brought him special consideration. While Wenz’s truck was being repaired, he drove the firm’s Dodge van and allegedly caused the accident injuring Dorothy Haight. Despite the fact State Farm and Johnson-Kinney had specially agreed there would be no coverage for Wenz, Insurance Code section 670 compels this result. The named person exclusion for Wenz is forbidden by section 670 when it is based upon an employee’s bad driving record off the job. Wenz’s record of traffic citations caused State Farm to obtain the exclusion agreement with Johnson-Kinney.
The anomaly results from the circumstance Wenz was given permission to drive the company van while his truck was in the shop. Through this violation of company policy, section 670 becomes applicable. Since Wenz is required to provide his own mode of travel to job sites and the company office, he is “hired to drive” within the meaning of section 670. Even though driving is only incidental to his primary duty as a supervisor, the broad language employed by the Legislature in section 670 compels this result.
Insurance Code section 4881 (construed in pari materia with section 670 in the majority opinion) now limits its application to drivers “whose specific *245duties include driving their employer’s motor vehicles . . . .” (Italics added.) If such a restriction applied to section 670, State Farm would not be bound to provide coverage for this particular loss. It seems logical to me the Teamsters Union intended to apply section 670 only to full-time professional drivers when it proposed this legislation. Nevertheless, as presently phrased, its application cannot be avoided in this case.
Respondent’s petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied December 15, 1988.

Insurance Code section 488 reads, in part, as follows: “No insurer shall, in issuing or renewing a private passenger automobile insurance policy, increase the premium on that policy for the reason that the insured or applicant for insurance has been convicted for traffic violations committed while operating a motor vehicle for compensation during the hours of his employment if, with respect to a conviction, the employee or applicant has submitted to the *245insurer a written declaration made by the employee under penalty of perjury that the applicant or insured was, at that time, operating a motor vehicle for compensation during the hours of his or her employment. This section applies only to those individuals whose specific duties include driving their employer’s motor vehicles ....’’ (Underscoring added; underscored portion is the pertinent part of the 1985 amendment.)