Court Opinion

ID: 9522867
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:33:04.047685+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:07.488224
License: Public Domain

Reiber, C.J.,
¶ 44. dissenting. I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that Towns’s action of disposing on his property large amounts of construction and demolition debris procured through his business is an activity ordinarily incident to homeownership and therefore excepted from the business-pursuits exclusion in his homeowner’s insurance policy. The prolonged duration of Towns’s disposal, the type of materials deposited, and the overall amount of the material exceeds any activity that can be characterized as an ordinary personal use. I would affirm the trial court’s decision that the business-pursuits exclusion, but not the exception, applies, and therefore that there is no coverage.
¶ 45. As described by the majority, Towns’s homeowner’s insurance policy contained an exclusion for property damage “arising out of business pursuits.” This exclusion was limited by an exception for “activities which are ordinarily incident to non-business pursuits.” The business-pursuits exclusion allows insurance providers to separate the risks associated with business and personal activities and therefore to keep premium levels for homeowner’s policies at a reasonable level. 9A L. Russ & T. Segalla, Couch on Insurance § 128:12, at 128-30 to 128-31 (3d ed. 2006); see Smith v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Co., 656 N.W.2d 432, 437 (Minn. Ct. App. 2003) (explaining that the business-pursuits exclusion deletes coverage that is not essential to homeowners to keep premiums at a reasonable level).
¶46. “[T]he non-business pursuits exception operates to restore coverage for some activities that in fact arise out of the insured’s business pursuits.” 9A Russ & Segalla, supra, § 128:23, at 128-50. In construing such provisions, we have explained that the exception to the exclusion applies when the insured’s activities “are usual to his or her nonbusiness pursuits.” Vt. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Gambell, 166 Vt. 595, 596, 689 A.2d 453, 454 (1997) (mem.). “For an activity to be a business pursuit, it must be an act that is solely referable to the conduct of the business and one that the *351insured would not normally pursue but for the business.” Id. Thus, purchasers can expect coverage when an activity, although connected to the insured’s business, is ordinarily incident to a nonbusiness pursuit. See Concord Gen. Mut. Ins. Co. v. Woods, 2003 VT 33, ¶¶ 13-14, 175 Vt. 212, 824 A.2d 572 (explaining that the expectations of the parties are important to interpreting exclusions in an insurance contract).
¶ 47. In applying the exclusion, the majority concludes that the initial hauling of the debris was for profit and part of Towns’s business, and was thus subject to the business-pursuits exclusion. I agree. The majority, however, further concludes that Towns’s activities fall within the nonbusiness-pursuits exception to the exclusion for two main reasons: because it was ordinary at the time for landowners in a small rural state such as Vermont to deposit fill on their property; and because Towns did not save any money by depositing fill on his property as opposed to at a proper waste disposal site. I find neither reason convincing.
¶ 48. Although it may be true that at times landowners deposit fill on their property, the type of the material Towns deposited and the amount of fill he used preclude any finding that his endeavor was an ordinary personal activity.7 Towns deposited debris on his property for a significant period of time — from 1972 to 1987. The total amount of material was at least 4000 cubic yards. The items Towns deposited were construction and demolition debris he obtained through his waste-hauling business. Far *352from ordinary “fill,” these items included, among other things, scrap lumber, metal duct work, fiberglass insulation, concrete, metal roofing, shingles, a washing machine, dryer, and refrigerator. In fact, the Towns site was deemed by the state to be a solid waste facility subject to regulation, and requiring a permit, during its last seven years of operation. Ante, ¶ 2. Even ignoring the fact that the material was obtained through the course of Towns’s business, the prolonged duration and overall amount of the fill exceeds any activity that can be characterized as an ordinary personal use.8 See Velleman v. Cont’l Ins. Co., 616 N.Y.S.2d 146, 148-49 (Sup. Ct. 1994) (explaining that although courier deliveries are common to households, the regularity and frequency of deliveries associated with insured’s business precluded them from being characterized as ordinarily incident to nonbusiness use).9
¶ 49. In this case, given the large quantity of fill and the industrial nature of the fill, Towns’s disposal of these materials on his property was very different from an operation that an ordinary homeowner might undertake. “[I]t is unlikely the parties expected to cover the increased risks associated” with this type of large-scale, industrial activity. Id. at 149; Luneau v. Peerless Ins. Co., 170 Vt. 442, 448-49, 750 A.2d 1031, 1035-36 (2000) (explaining that parties to a homeowner’s policy would not reasonably expect coverage for the different legal duties and the greater risk associated with business activities).
¶ 50. I also find no basis for the majority’s conclusion that Towns’s conduct “served no business purpose” because he saved no money by depositing the debris at his home. Ante, ¶ 12. *353Whether Towns saved any money by depositing the items in his backyard as opposed to in a landfill does not answer the question of whether the hauling and disposing of the items served a business purpose. Towns’s clients paid him to collect, haul and dispose of industrial waste. Rather than dispose of the items in a landfill, Towns chose to deposit some of the debris on his property. The majority claims that because Towns’s business did not receive any additional benefit from his diversion of the debris to his residential property, the activity was transformed into an ordinary personal use. Thus, the majority attempts to separate the disposal part of the business from Towns’s waste hauling enterprise and looks for a distinct profit earned on the choice of dumpsite. The dumping of the waste, however, cannot be discretely isolated from the fees Towns received for the removal and transportation of the debris for disposal elsewhere, and the majority’s ruling otherwise is contrary to our prior decisions on the exception to the business-pursuits exclusion. In evaluating whether an activity can be considered ordinarily incidental to a nonbusiness pursuit, we have, not focused on the action in isolation, but in the context of the situation. See N. Sec. Ins. Co. v. Perron, 172 Vt. 204, 223-24, 777 A.2d 151, 165 (2001) (holding that while parents have general responsibility to supervise their children, in context of a home daycare, failure to supervise is a business activity). In Luneau v. Peerless Insurance Co., we rejected an approach that looked “narrowly at the activity in which the insured was engaged when the tort occurred.” 170 Vt. at 447, 750 A.2d at 1035. We explained that “narrow distinctions tend to eat up the business pursuits exception because tortious conduct, viewed in isolation from its context, rarely advances a business interest and can easily be categorized as ordinarily incident to nonbusiness pursuits.” Id. at 447-48, 750 A.2d at 1035.
¶ 51. In Luneau, a wedding disc jockey got in a physical fight with a guest. During the fight, a speaker was knocked over and injured the plaintiff. The plaintiff argued that fighting was a nonbusiness activity and therefore there was coverage under the disc jockey’s homeowner’s policy for the injury. This Court disagreed, explaining that it was the disc jockey’s negligence in placing the speaker that was at issue and that this was related to his business duty “to maintain a safe space for his customers.” Id. at 449-50, 750 A.2d at 1035-36. In so doing, we did not examine whether the specific conduct particularly profited the business. *354Indeed, the jockey’s business did not benefit in any way from his act of negligently arranging the speaker or from engaging in a fight, but we nonetheless held that the jockey’s activities were part of his business that was profit-motivated in general. Id. at 449, 750 A.2d at 1036.
¶ 52. Towns does not dispute that he obtained the material he deposited in his yard from sites he was contracted to clean up, that he was paid to remove the debris from those sites, and that without these contracts, he would not have had access to these materials. As the majority recognizes, most homeowners would not have the same means at their disposal. Ante, ¶ 12. Towns obtained the materials through his business and was paid by contract to dispose of the items. Therefore, the activity was “one that the insured would not normally pursue but for the business.” Gambell, 166 Vt. at 596, 689 A.2d at 454. That Towns also received a perceived additional personal benefit of filling in a large ravine on his property by depositing the material in his yard instead of at a proper waste-disposal site does “not transform an activity which was essentially business related into one ordinarily incident to non-business pursuits.” State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Stinnett, 389 N.E.2d 668, 670 (Ill. App. Ct. 1979) (holding that insured’s act of mowing the weeds along the roads around his farm was a business activity intended to keep weeds from spreading into his fields and that the additional benefit of keeping farm “looking nice” did not transform the activity into a nonbusiness pursuit); see also Grain Dealers Mut. Ins. Co. v. Farmers Alliance Mut. Ins. Co., 298 F.3d 1178, 1183-84 (10th Cir. 2002) (applying Oklahoma law) (holding that landowners’ act of depositing fly ash on their property was a business venture because it was done as part of an ash-hauling contract and that the incidental benefit of reclaiming a ravine did not transform it into a property improvement project).
¶ 53. Because disposing of construction and demolition debris was an integral part of Towns’s business and because this disposal far exceeded any expected, ordinary nonbusiness activity, I would affirm the trial court’s conclusion that the business-pursuits exclusion bars coverage in this case. I am authorized to state that Justice Burgess joins this dissent.

 In support of its assertion that Towns’s actions were ordinary, the majority relies on information recited in our earlier opinion that the Attorney General’s Office initially told the purchasers of Towns’s property that dumping was a common occurrence in Vermont. Agency of Natural Res. v. Towns, 168 Vt. 449, 450, 724 A.2d 1022, 1023 (1998). I fail to see how this comment supports the majority’s conclusion that Towns’s prolonged disposal of construction materials on his property was an ordinary action. The characterization of dumping as a “common occurrence” was made by an employee at the Attorney General’s Office based on a description provided by the purchaser, who did not know the extent of the fill or the nature of the fill, and before anyone from the Attorney General’s Office actually inspected Towns’s property. As we explained in our previous opinion, the Attorney General’s Office also told the purchaser, based on the information she provided, that “the State would not take action because the fill was covered, was not visible from the road, and was not leaching into water.” Id. Once an inspection actually did occur, and the state had information about the type and amount of material Towns deposited on his site, the state did take action. Thus, there is no evidence that, once the state understood the extent and nature of Towns’s disposal, the state characterized this disposal as “ordinary.”

 The majority criticizes this dissent for failing to provide guidance on “precisely how long or how much filling ‘activity’ may be characterized as ‘normal’ for personal use.” Ante, ¶ 13. As the majority recognizes, however, distinguishing business from nonbusiness pursuits is a “context-specific” inquiry. Ante, ¶ 10. Thus, the sole question before us is whether Towns’s activity, when viewed in its entirety, was part of his business, not what activity hypothetically might amount to a nonbusiness pursuit in another situation.

 The majority deems Velleman inapposite because the regular and frequent deliveries were business-related material made to a business entrance of the insured’s residence. I fail to understand how this is different from Towns’s regular and frequent delivery of business materials to his home. In any event, the main point is that just as courier deliveries are not so frequent at residences “so as to be an expected adjunct to a homeowner’s activities,” Velleman, 616 N.Y.S.2d at 149, regular deposit of commercial waste, obtained for profit through his waste hauling business, is not an activity that is expected as ordinarily occurring at a residence.