Court Opinion

ID: 9529751
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:53:53.507302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:54.590634
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE SLATER, dissenting: I do not agree with the majority that this accident arose out of the "ownership, maintenance or use” of an uninsured vehicle. The majority appears to offer a thoughtful and well-reasoned analysis, and I have no particular quarrel with the test the majority adopts. Nevertheless, the logic of the majority opinion breaks down when the majority tries to apply its test to the facts of this case. Terms in an insurance policy are to be given their plain and ordinary meaning. See National Union Fire Insurance Co. v. Glenview Park District, 158 Ill. 2d 116, 632 N.E.2d 1039 (1994). Giving the terms of this policy their plain and ordinary meaning would hamper the majority’s analysis, because clearly Duffy’s action in wandering intoxicated down the middle of an interstate traffic lane did not "arise out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the uninsured vehicle.” Although not entirely clear, the majority appears to be limiting its analysis to the word "use.” The majority then reaches to out-of-state authority for the proposition that an accident may arise out of the use of a vehicle despite the fact that the vehicle was not being used at the time, and ignores Illinois authority that to constitute a "use” under an insurance policy, one must be in operation of the vehicle. See Apcon Corp. v. Dana Trucking, Inc., 251 Ill. App. 3d 973, 623 N.E.2d 1039 (1993). The majority settles on a test that considers whether the injury is the result of an activity that presented the type of risk the parties reasonably contemplated would be covered by the policy and whether the alleged "use” is reasonably consistent with the inherent nature of the vehicle. It will probably be of interest to defendant to learn that when it included in its policy the clause providing coverage for accidents arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of an uninsured vehicle it was providing coverage for accidents caused by intoxicated pedestrians walking in the middle of a highway. Although the majority states it is applying its newly adopted test, it is really just applying a "but for” test. The majority concedes that an automobile must do more than transport a person to the scene where an accident later occurs. Such a concession should lead the majority to conclude that no coverage can be provided here. In fact, in the case at bar, the car did not even transport Duffy to the scene of the accident. Duffy had walked between three-tenths and three-quarters of a mile from his automobile and was a pedestrian at the time of the accident. In Kienstra v. Madison County Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 316 Ill. App. 238, 44 N.E.2d 944 (1942), the court, in construing an "ownership, maintenance or use” clause, determined that the clause was not applicable to a situation in which a deliveryman parked his ice truck in front of plaintiff’s house, unloaded a cake of ice from the truck, and then accidently dropped the ice on plaintiff’s child while carrying it through the yard. In denying coverage, the court focused on the fact that the deliveryman had exited the truck and was en route to his destination by other means. The court concluded that it was "difficult indeed to see any causal relationship between the accident and the 'use and operation’ of the truck.” Kienstra, 316 Ill. App. at 241, 44 N.E.2d at 945. Similarly, in the case at bar, Duffy had left his vehicle and was en route to the gas station on foot. Surely the majority cannot believe that any accident caused by an uninsured motorist walking to a gas station is covered under the "ownership, maintenance or use” of an uninsured motor vehicle clause. Under the majority’s view, if Duffy had realized in his own driveway that his uninsured car was out of gas and decided to walk across town to a gas station, an accident caused by a car swerving to avoid Duffy miles from his home would be covered, for no other reason than that Duffy’s ultimate destination was a gas station. The reason that the majority view would lead to coverage in such ridiculous situations is that the majority analyzes this case backwards. The majority begins with the uninsured motor vehicle and tries to find any possible way to connect it with the accident. Using such an analysis would lead to some tangential connection in almost every case and would lead to coverage in various bizarre scenarios that are literally too numerous to imagine. Instead, I submit that the correct way of analyzing the situation is to begin with the accident and then look to see what caused it. For coverage to apply the accident must arise out of the "ownership, maintenance or use” of an uninsured motor vehicle. What was the accident in this case? Plaintiff swerved off the road and was injured. The question that must be answered is: why did plaintiff swerve off the road? Was it because (a) Duffy was walking in the middle of the lane of traffic, or because (b) Duffy ran out of gas? The parties to this appeal agree that (a) is the correct answer, but for some reason the majority picks (b). This is the point at which the majority opinion breaks down logically. People walk to gas stations all the time without causing accidents. In order for Duffy to get gas it was not necessary for him to be walking in the middle of the lane of traffic. Incredibly, the majority states that it does not matter that Duffy was walking in the middle of traffic rather than on the shoulder. Translated, what the majority is saying is that the very cause of the accident is irrelevant. The majority states that "[rjegardless of the manner in which he walked, Duffy’s actions originated from and were incident to the operation of his vehicle.” 278 Ill. App. 3d at 1055. This sentence demonstrates the problems inherent in the majority’s backwards analysis. The majority is saying that it does not matter what Duffy was doing because his ultimate destination was a gas station. If we analyze the situation starting from the accident, as we must, rather than starting from the uninsured vehicle, problems like this do not arise. Clearly, Duffy’s act of walking in traffic took his activity outside the risk for which the parties contemplated there would be coverage. The parties could not have contemplated that an accident caused by a driver swerving to avoid an intoxicated pedestrian in the middle of traffic would be covered under a clause providing coverage for liability arising out of the "ownership, maintenance or use” of an uninsured vehicle. I believe Duffy’s choice of walking in the middle of the road was an act of independent legal significance which was the cause of plaintiffs accident. Therefore, I agree with the position taken by the trial court, and I would affirm its decision.