Court Opinion

ID: 9560073
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:42:37.059387+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:12:04.904512
License: Public Domain

Worswick, C.J., concurs.
Alexander, J. (dissenting) — I dissent. I disagree with the majority when it says that Evans did not "use" the vehicle to commit the kidnapping and rape. While using a vehicle as a means of transporting a victim and as a place to commit a rape is not either a "reasonable" or "traditional" *112use of an automobile, it is, in my judgment, a use nonetheless.
In order for an accident to result from the use of a vehicle, this court need only find that there is a causal connection between the use of a vehicle and the resulting accident. Such a connection exists if the vehicle contributed in any way to produce the injury. Transamerica Ins. Group v. United Pac. Ins. Co., 92 Wn.2d 21, 593 P.2d 156 (1979). If Evans had been in an accident in the same car while he was transporting Schlea to the scene of the rape, would the majority say that this was not an occurrence resulting from the use of a motor vehicle? I think not. To me, there is little difference between that scenario and the present where the vehicle was used to perpetrate these crimes which resulted in injury to Schlea. The simple fact is that Schlea was injured as a result of Evans' use of the automobile to kidnap and rape her.
In concluding that Schlea's injuries did not arise out of the "use" of an automobile, the majority makes the point that Evans could have accomplished his misdeeds without the use of an automobile. It concludes, therefore, that he was not engaged in a transaction essential to the use of the vehicle. Again, I disagree. Plainly, Evans used the vehicle as an essential part of his activity. One could argue that any injury occurring from the use of an automobile could be caused by other means, but that should not prevent us from observing that the injury to Schlea resulted from Evans' use of the automobile. I would affirm the trial court's denial of summary judgment to PEMCO.