Court Opinion

ID: 9449375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:10:39.930719+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:48.784076
License: Public Domain

BASTIAN, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Plaintiff [appellant] filed suit in the District Court against defendant [appellee], Indemnity Insurance Company of North America, under a policy of insurance issued to the employer of plaintiff’s husband. The policy involved was executed and delivered to the National League of Insured Savings Associations [hereinafter called “the employer”], with headquarters in Washington, D. C. The policy, termed “A. B. Blanket Accident Policy,” was effective from July 12, 1958, to July 12, 1959. It insured the life of certain executives of the employer, including plaintiff’s husband. The defendant agreed, among other things, to pay *270$100,000 in the event of the death of any such employee occurring within the terms of the policy. The hazards insured against were the following:
“Part V. Description of Hazards
“The hazards against which insurance is granted under this Policy are (provided such hazards arise out of and in the course of the business of the Employer)
“(a) any civil aircraft, provided such aircraft (1) is operated by a properly certificated pilot, (2) has a current unrestricted airworthiness certificate, and (3) is not being used for fire fighting, pipe line inspection, aerial photography or exploration;
“(b) any aircraft operated by the Military Air Transport Service (MATS) of the United States of America, or any similar airline operated on a scheduled basis by the military authorities of any other nation ;
“(c) any land conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire while traveling directly to or from an airport immediately preceding departure or immediately following arrival of an aircraft used by or to be used by the Insured solely as a passenger.”
On February 7, 1959, plaintiff’s husband landed at the New Orleans airport on business of the employer. On the same day, and still on the employer’s business, he hired a “drive-it-yourself” automobile from The Hertz Corporation and traveled to Biloxi, Mississippi, a distance of about one hundred miles, to attend a four-day business meeting. On February 11, 1959, he started back to the New Orleans airport from Biloxi in the same rented car and, some forty miles from the airport, was involved in an automobile accident resulting in his death.
Defendant having denied liability under the terms of the policy, the present action was instituted. Among other defenses, defendant claimed that the hazards described in the policy did not cover the circumstances of the decedent’s death. Cross motions for summary judgment were filed, and, on hearing of the cross motions, the District Court entered its order denying plaintiff’s motion and granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment. This appeal followed.
I think it clear that the judgment appealed from should be affirmed. I recognize, of course, the elementary proposition that any ambiguities in an insurance policy must be construed in favor of the insured. However, here it appears that there are no ambiguities. Subparagraphs (a) and (b) of the description of hazards, above set forth, are clearly not applicable to the instant case as death did not occur on any civil aircraft, nor was there involved any aircraft operated by the Military Air Transport Service of the United States or any similar airline operated by the military authorities of any other nation. Therefore, any claim that plaintiff has must have reference to subparagraph (c) of Part V of the policy.
The decedent was not riding in “any land conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire.” This clause obviously refers to duly licensed taxicabs, airport limousines, airport busses, and similar types of vehicles. This rented automoble was clearly not one of these types for, by the terms of the contract between the decedent and The Hertz Corporation, the rented car was not permitted to be used for transportation of persons for hire.1
I am in entire accord with the opinion of the District Judge issued at the time of the granting of the motion for summary judgment in favor of the defendant *271insurance company. I quote from that opinion as follows:
“It is true, as counsel for the plaintiff contends, and in fact it is an elementary principle of the law of insurance, that ambiguities in an insurance policy, drawn as they are by the insurance companies, should be construed in favor of the insured. However, this principle does not mean that a tortured interpretation must be attached to a provision of the policy that is not ambiguous on its face merely in order to favor the insured.
“There is no ambiguity in the phrase ‘any land conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire.’ Obviously this policy contemplates that its coverage should not be limited to the time that the insured employee spends in the airplane but that it also includes the trip from the airport to his final destination, as it is well known that most airports are a considerable distance from the cities with which they are connected.
“A conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire necessarily implies, as a common sense matter, a conveyance driven by somebody in which the insured is a passenger, such as a bus plying between the airport and the air terminal in the city or a limousine or a taxicab or some such conveyance .as that.
“It is quite apparent that there was no intention to insure the pas.senger while he was driving himself. To say that an automobile that a person rents from the owner for the purpose of driving himself is a conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire would be .attaching a meaning to the phrase that is absolutely insupportable. It is contrary to common sense and contrary to the dictates of plain English.
“The Court is of the opinion that the words ‘land conveyance licensed for the transportation of passengers for hire’ may include any common carrier or any contract carrier or any other vehicle in which the insured makes a trip as a passenger from the airport to his final destination.
“A person who is driving his own car is not a passenger. This distinction is not purely technical, it is based both on common sense and what was obviously the intention of the insurance company, and that intention was clearly expressed.” (J. A. 45, 46.)
I further feel that the vehicle in which the plaintiff was riding at the time of the accident was not “traveling directly to or from an airport immediately preceding departure * * * of an aircraft used by or to be used by the Insured solely as a passenger.” [Emphasis supplied.] It is hard to see how it could be said that such was the case in the present instance, and it would be difficult to see what limits such a construction would reach. For instance, could a person who rents a car to drive from Washington to New York, where he intends to board a plane, be said to be “traveling directly” to the New York airport “immediately preceding departure” of the plane proposed to be taken ?
For the reasons above stated, it seems to me that the accident did not come within the description of hazards against which insurance was provided, and the District Court was correct in granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant insurance company. So, I dissent.

. The contract under which the car was rented provided: “Renter agrees not to use, operate or drive said vehicle for the transportation of persons or property for hire, express or implied. * * * ”