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Arredondo v. Avis Rent a Car System3/27/2001
on was provided with primary liability insurance coverage in the amount of $25,000. She was also provided with optional excess liability coverage in the amount of $1,000,000. The only issue before us is the applicability of the excess policy to Mrs. Walston's son Kai Walston, who was driving the car at the time of the accident. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Avis and Continental, ruling that the excess liability insurance policy did not provide liability coverage for Kai Walston.
The excess liability policy in question identified as insureds under the policy the named insured and as additional insureds "any authorized driver of the car . . . as such drivers are described in the rental agreement." Policy paras. II.g, h, i.
As we have already seen, the rental agreement designated "authorized drivers" as the renter of the car, the renter's spouse, the renter's employer or a regular fellow employee incidental to business duties, and someone who appears at the time of the rental and signs an additional driver form. Kai Walston was not the named insured, nor was he the renter's spouse, nor was he the renter's employer or regular fellow employee incidental to business duties, nor was he someone who appeared at the time of rental and signed the additional driver form. Clearly, Kai Walston was not an authorized driver and was not covered by the excess liability policy. In fact, even if Kai Walston had been given permission by his mother to drive this rental car, he would not have been covered by the excess policy since this policy was an operator policy, not an owner policy.
The majority opinion declares that because the Continental excess policy was not purchased to satisfy the statutory security requirement, the coverage is governed by the terms of the policy which exclude coverage for Kai Walston. I agree with the majority opinion as far as it goes but believe that the complete reason for noncoverage of Kai Walston is that the Continental policy was not an owner policy but, rather, an operator policy with different statutory requirements as set forth above.
Chief Justice Howe concurs in Associate Chief Justice Russon's concurring opinion.
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