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Meyers v. Mississippi Insurance Guaranty Association6/19/2003
d that in a case in which negligent hiring and training are alleged as thereby resulting in an impermissible use of the vehicle causing the bodily injury, the "ownership or use of an automobile is incidental, not an essential element of the negligence claim." Id. at 103 (emphasis added).
. In making a coverage determination one has to look at the facts and the asserted theories of liability. For example, on negligent entrustment if the owner of the vehicle knowingly gives a vehicle to someone who is incompetent to drive and trusts him with it, that independent act may then cause the accident that occurs or may be a contributing cause of the accident; however, since the owner was not driving neither liability policy or automobile policy will cover the owner's negligence. If the owner allows someone to drive knowing that the brakes are bad and this causes or contributes to an accident; the owner's negligence under the majority decision is not covered under either the automobile or general liability policy. If under a principal or agent, the principal is not covered under an automobile or general liability policy since the principal was not driving the vehicle and the automobile exclusion precludes the general liability coverage. Finally, a parent who signs for a minor to obtain a driver's license between the ages of fifteen and seventeen years old agrees to be responsible for any negligence of the minor's use of the vehicle. Again, neither the automobile policy nor the homeowner's general liability policy will cover the parent under the majority's opinion.
. A reasonable interpretation of these decisions is the auto-use exclusion should not apply when the negligence or cause-in-fact of the injuries is independent of the vehicle use, or where the vehicle use is incidental to the negligence claim, especially when negligent hiring or training are alleged as in the present case. Titan and the precedents upon which it relies do not contain any legal analysis that justifies the denial of Meyers's claims. Summary judgment should have been denied; and therefore, I would reverse the circuit court's judgment and remand this case for trial. Accordingly, I dissent.
EASLEY, J., JOINS THIS OPINION.
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