Court Opinion

ID: 9625574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:44:57.234114+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:32:04.535668
License: Public Domain

CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring separately) :
It is important to have in mind that the defenses asserted involve mixed questions of law and fact; and that as to the latter, it is the prerogative of the trial court both to judge the evidence and to draw any reasonable inferences therefrom.
I do not join in a general and invariable rule that the time of “acquisition” of a vehicle is when one takes possession of it. I think it may depend on what the parties intended, or what under the circumstances they should reasonably be deemed to have intended, with respect to the policy coverage in relation to the occurrence on which the claim is based. E. g., if this had been a fire insurance policy, the date of “acquisition” may have been January S, 1973, even though the truck remained in storage. This because the risk of loss commenced at that time; and the insurer should have been notified within the 30 days. But where the policy was one insuring against the risks of the road, I think it consistent with reason for the trial court to determine that, for the purposes of this policy, the plaintiff did not “acquire” the vehicle until delivery, when use of the truck and exposure to the risks insured against would begin.
The same principles apply to the matter of insuring “all of the vehicles” of the plaintiff. That is, the trial court was justified in finding that by course of conduct in connection with plaintiff’s separate orchard business the defendant had waived any other application for the policy’s terms.
Similarly those principles apply to the third matter of defense: that the load limit of the truck was above that specified in the policy; and furthermore, the weight capacity of the truck had nothing to do with the particular type of risk out of which the damage and injury arose.
For the foregoing reasons I concur in the decision affirming the findings and judgment of the trial court.