Court Opinion

ID: 9642396
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:56:28.738705+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:46.764721
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Griffin
joined by Justices Smedley, Brewster and Wilson, dissenting.
The crux of this case is whether Jesse C. Warren, deceased husband of respondent, Audie Warren, was covered by the accident insurance policy issued by petitioner. The test of liability is whether or not the pilot was within the risks assumed by petitioner when it issued the policy. Petitioner agreed to indemnify the employer for loss resulting from injury sustained by any officer, employee or guest of the employer to the extent herein provided. After defining injury, the policy proceeds “provided such injury is sustained by the insured person in consequence of riding as a passenger in, boarding, alighting from, making a parachute jump from, (for the purpose of saving his life) or being struck by the twin engine six-passenger-place Beechcraft Aircraft D18S, License NC 80496, owned by the employer, which aircraft at the time of the accident * * * is piloted by a person who holds a valid and current certificate of competency of a rating authorizing him to do so.” (Emphasis added). There is no contention that Jesse C. Warren was killed in consequence of an injury resulting from “boarding, alighting from, making a parachute jump from, (for the purpose of saving his life) or being struck by the twin engine, etc. etc.” Therefore, for respondent to recover Warren must have been a passenger riding in the six passenger-place Beechcraft piloted by a duly licensed pilot. A statement of the facts upon which petitioner must rely for a recovery shows that the “pilot” is not a “passenger” within the meaning of the policy. To say that the pilot is a passenger and therefore entitled to recovery under this policy is to make Warren a passenger riding in the six-place Beechcraft aeroplane which he is at the same time piloting. If this is the law the use of the words “piloted by a duly licensed pilot” is surplusage and has no meaning whatsoever. All that was necessary to say was that the insured person could recover if riding as a passenger in the six-place Beechcraft plane and stop at this point, but the parties did not stop here. They added *174"which aircraft at the time of the accident * * * is piloted by a person who holds a valid and current certificate of competency, etc. etc.”
I do not believe the term “passenger” includes “pilot” in ordinary parlance, aeronautical usage, or legal contemplation. “Passenger” as defined in Webster’s New International Dictionary is “a traveller, by some established public conveyance, as a coach, omnibus, steamboat, railroad train, etc.” “Passenger” is defined in the Uniform State Law for Aeronautics as including “any person riding in an aircraft but having no part in its operation.” 2 C. J. S. 902; Hotchkiss, The Law of Aviation, 2d Ed. 459. The word “passenger” as applied to carriers has been given the same meaning. In Aschenbrenner v. U. S. F. & G. Co., 292 U. S. 80, 54 S. Ct. 590, 78 L. Ed. 1137, in discussing the meaning of the word “passenger”, the Court said: “In its usual popular significance the term, when applied to one riding a train, indicates a traveler, intending to be transported for hire or upon contract with the carrier, <md distinguishes him from those employed to render service in connection with the journey.” (Emphasis added). Quoting from 31 Words and Phrases, Perm. Ed., 337 a “passenger” is defined as “a person who undertakes, with the consent of the carrier, to travel in a conveyance provided by the latter, otherwise than in the service of the carrier as such”, and citing Higley v. Gilmer, 3 Mont. 90, 99, 35 Am. Rep. 450; Denver, S. P. & P. Ry. Co. v. Pickard, 6 Pac. 149, 152, 8 Colo. 163; Berry v. Missouri Pac. Ry. Co., 124 Mo. 223, 247, 25 S.W. 229.
It is no answer to say that Warren was covered by the first part of the above quotation from the policy under the terms “officer, employer or guest of the employer”, because the policy goes on to state the terms of liability to be “to the extent herein provided.” If the policy had been intended to cover all “officers, employees or guests” riding in the aircraft, there would have been no need of further words, and the enumeration of conditions which follow show clearly that all injuries were not insured against.
By the inclusion in the policy of the requirement that the aircraft in which the insured must be riding shall be piloted by a duly licensed pilot, it is clearly shown, under the facts of this case, that the policy does not cover the pilot. The parties used the language “riding as a passenger in” for some purpose. That purpose was to distinguish “passenger” from “pilot”, and for *175further demonstration that the parties to this contract did not intend to include the pilot as within the terms of the coverage. We find the following statement in the policy as to the coverage paid for at the time the policy was issued: “This policy is issued in consideration of the payment of an annual term premium of $750.00, calculated at the rate of $125.00 per annum for each passenger-place in the aircraft herein described.” This says that premiums are paid “for each passenger-place in the aircraft described herein.” The policy, as above set out, refers to the twin-engine six-place Beechcraft aircraft, etc. * * * which aircraft at the time of the accident is piloted by a person, etc.” The rate is stated to be $125.00 per annum per passenger-place, and the annual term premium is $750.00. A simple mathematical calculation shows that only six passengers were covered. This does not include any coverage for the pilot who is piloting the six-passenger place aircraft. This again, to my mind, is absolute and uncontroverted proof that the pilot is not covered. Giving added weight to my contention that the policy covers only the passengers, and not the pilot, is the following provision of the policy:
“LIMIT OF INDEMNITY
The limit of Indemnity as to each insured person shall be PRINCIPAL SUM PART II $25,000.00
Notwithstanding the limit of Indemnity above specified for each insured person, the Company’s limit of Indemnity under this policy for all losses arising out of any one accident shall be $150,000.00.”
Again simple arithmetic will show that no more than six persons would possibly be covered in any one accident. In the face of the provision that the injury for which indemnity will be paid must be sustained by the insured person in consequence of “riding as a passenger in, boarding, alighting from, making a parachute jump from, (for the purpose of saving his life) or being struck by the twin engine six passenger-place Beechcraft Aircraft D18S, License NC 80496, owned by the employer, which aircraft at the time of the accident * * * is piloted by a person who holds a valid and current certificate of competency of a rating authorizing him to do so” — how can it be maintained that the pilot is covered ? Clearly, if all six-passenger places were occupied at the time of an accident, the pilot would not come within the risk assumed. The risk on the pilot was not paid for, nor was it included within the limit of indemnity, and, to my mind, could not possibly be covered by this policy.
*176The policy as a whole has no ambiguity and must be construed as the parties wrote it and agreed upon its terms at the time it was issued and only to cover those risks for which a premium was paid or the terms upon which the parties agreed. The plaintiff’s petition alleged in paragraph III, “* * * that Jesse C. Warren, husband of plaintiff, Audie Warren, and an employee of Gallery & Hurt, Inc., was piloting the said Beech-craft aircraft and was instantly killed in said crash.” (Emphasis added).
Deceased Warren, being the pilot upon the flight in which he lost his life, was not covered by the policy issued, and there can be no recovery under the policy. I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Opinion delivered January 28, 1953.
Rehearing overruled March 11, 1953.