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Miller v. O'Brien8/2/2005
erence to the context of the policy as a whole." Barker, 150 S.W.3d at 105-06. "Thus, in determining the meaning of the words and phrases of an insurance policy, 'the court will not isolate ambiguous phrases, but will read the policy as a whole giving every clause some meaning if it is reasonably able to do so.'" Id. at 106 (quoting Mazzocchio v. Pohlman, 861 S.W.2d 208, 210-11 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993)).
The coverage provisions of the "Hired Auto and Non-Owned Auto Liability" endorsement would be rendered meaningless if the deletion of the automobile exclusion were read to apply to the base policy. The endorsement specifically states that " he insurance provided under the Businessowners Liability Coverage Form, Paragraph A.1. Business Liability, applies to 'bodily injury' or 'property damage' arising out of the use of any 'non-owned auto' in [the named insured's] business by any person other than [the named insured]." To read the deletion of the auto exclusion as applying to all of the coverage provided by the base policy, as opposed to just the coverage provided by the "Hired Auto and Non-Owned Auto Liability" endorsement, would provide the insured with coverage for "bodily injury" or "property damage" resulting from an automobile accident involving any vehicle driven by the insureds or anyone else and would not be limited to hired or non-owned automobiles operated by persons other than the named insureds. This would render meaningless the language of the endorsement providing coverage for bodily injury or property damage arising out of the use of a non-owned automobile in the insured's business by a person other than the insured. Such was clearly not the intent of the language contained in the "Hired Auto and Non-Owned Auto Liability" endorsement.
Having determined that O'Brien was not, as a matter of law, an insured under the policy for the purposes of the automobile accident, we need not address State Auto's remaining claims of error.
The trial court's judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
All concur.
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