Court Opinion

ID: 9452693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:48:56.881872+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:33:19.283596
License: Public Domain

CRAVEN, Circuit Judge
(concurring) :
Anyone who has rented a car from Hertz, Avis, or even Jet knows the printed contract comes with the car— sometimes shoved in the glove compartment as you drive off. Its terms are not freely negotiated between coequal parties. Such circumstances do not necessarily invalidate the provisions of the printed contract as between the parties, but certainly the true nature of the transaction ought to be considered in interpreting and applying the purported agreement as it affects others — especially victims of motor vehicle collisions.
The ordinary common sense meaning of an omnibus clause in an insurance policy ought not be changed by reference to a not so sacrosanct printed contract of rental. In my opinion, Bellows had “permission” to drive the rental car within the meaning of the omnibus clause in the New Amsterdam policy. That he was driving it seventy-five miles away from where he should have been under the rental contract, however important in other relationships, e. g., agency, should be an irrelevancy to liability coverage. Exclusions of coverage belong in insurance policies — not in printed rental contracts.
In Chatfield v. Farm Bureau Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 208 F.2d 250, 256 (4th Cir. 1953), Judge Dobie spoke eloquently of the duty of this court in construing omnibus clauses in insurance policies:
“Our own decisions, we think, show a strong tendency toward a liberal interpretation, in favor of the insured, of the ‘omnibus clause.’ This clause should not be construed and applied, from a purely analytical viewpoint, under a literal interpretation of the words of the policy. The spirit, not the letter, should control. Statutes requiring the insertion of the ‘omnibus clause’ in automobile liability policies reflect a clear cut policy to protect the public. They should be construed and applied so as to carry out this policy.” 1
I concur in the result.

. Compare Judge Fahy’s dissenting opinion in Boyd v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 98 U.S. App.D.C. 107, 232 F.2d 364, 365 (1956), and Judge Washington’s concurring opinion in Bennett v. Amalgamated Cas. Ins. Co., 91 U.S.App.D.C. 279, 200 F.2d 129, 133 (1952).