Court Opinion

ID: 9755067
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:23:41.621528+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:01.598588
License: Public Domain

John Mauzy Pittman, Judge, concurring. I agree that this case should be affirmed. However, I vote to do so for a different reason, and I express no opinion on the particular issue decided in the majority opinion. Neither party broached the issue that constitutes the basis of the majority holding that the timing of Mr. Emlet’s contact with the Cherry vehicle prevented him from being an insured. I would affirm instead on a ground that was fully developed by the parties in their briefs, i.e., that even if Mr. Emlet can be said to have been “on” the Cherry vehicle, he was not on it with Ms. Cherry’s permission. The insurance policy in this case excluded from UM coverage persons who occupied the covered vehicle without the express or implied permission of the named insured. I do not believe that by any stretch of the imagination Mr. Emlet can be said to have occupied the Cherry vehicle with Ms. Cherry’s express or implied permission. Although the parties do not cite us to an Oklahoma case defining the term “permission,” the Arkansas Supreme Court has defined “permission” to include “such usage of the car as was intended by the owner, expressly authorized or limited by the owner, or perhaps agreed to by the owner and the intended user.” Commercial Union Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 294 Ark. 444, 745 S.W.2d 589 (1988). Further, we addressed the concept of “implied permission” in Clark v. Progressive Insurance Co., 64 Ark. App. 313, 984 S.W.2d 54 (1998), in connection with permission to drive, rather than occupy, an automobile. Nevertheless, our discussion is instructive: An implied permission ... is not confined to affirmative action, but means an inferential permission, in which a presumption is raised from a course of conduct or relationship between the parties in which there is a mutual acquiescence or lack of objection signifying consent. But implied permission is not limited to such situations, and will be evaluated in light of all the facts and circumstances surrounding the parties. Implied permission may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Circumstances such as usage, practice, or friendship may be used to show implied permission. It may be found that the insured has given implied permission where the named insured has knowledge of a violation of instructions and fails to make a significant protest. It has also been stated, however, that the term “permission” contemplates something more than mere sufferance or tolerance without taking steps to prevent, and the term is used in the sense of leave, license, or authority with the power to prevent. Such implied permission is usually shown by usage and practice of the parties over a period of time preceding the day upon which the insured automobile was being used, assuming, of course, that all parties had knowledge of the facts. When this showing is made, there is considered to be a sufficient showing of a course of conduct in which the parties mutually acquiesced to bring the additional insured within the policy protection, provided, of course, that any acquiescence on the part of the insured was by some one having authority to give permission for him. Id. at 319, 984 S.W.2d at 58 (quoting 6C Appleman Insurance Law & Practice § 4365 (1979)). It defies all logic to suggest that Ms. Cherry impliedly permitted Mr. Emlet to occupy her vehicle. Both she and Emlet made contact unknowingly, unwillingly, and unintentionally without benefit of prior communication, relationship, or history between them. Mr. Emlet’s contact with the car was accidental and without Cherry’s knowledge or forbearance; it was not the result of Cherry’s permission, either express or implied.