 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Strickland v. Auto Owners Insurance Co.6/15/2005
BLACKBURN, P. J., MILLER and BERNES, JJ.
In this declaratory judgment action based on a claim of wrongful death, Wanda Truett Strickland, individually, and Nathan Dennis Strickland and Timothy Wayne Strickland, as co-administrators of the estate of Dilmus Wayne Strickland, (the "Stricklands") appeal the trial court's grant of summary judgment to Auto Owners Insurance Company ("Auto Owners"), based on its finding that the subject collision is excluded from coverage by SG Transportation, Inc.'s ("SG") general commercial liability policy. The Stricklands contend that material issues of fact remain regarding the applicability of a policy exclusion, and, in turn, Auto Owners's obligation to provide coverage for this incident to Rodney Wayne George and SG, the defendants in the underlying wrongful death action. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
Summary judgment is proper when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. OCGA ยง 9-11-56 (c). A de novo standard of review applies to an appeal from a grant of summary judgment, and we view the evidence, and all reasonable conclusions and inferences drawn from it, in the light most favorable to the non-movant.
Matjoulis v. Integon Gen. Ins. Corp.
Viewed in this light, the record shows that, on December 14, 2000, George was driving his tractor and was hauling a trailer owned by SG. At the time, George was operating the tractor pursuant to a Contractor Operating Agreement (the "Agreement") with SG, a motor common carrier. Pursuant to this Agreement, George would use his tractor to haul SG's loads on its trailers and would receive a percentage of the revenues received, a common practice in the industry. While George was hauling a load for SG, the tractor-trailer jack-knifed due to defective brakes on both the tractor and the trailer, and the trailer crossed the centerline and collided with another tractor-trailer driven by Dilmus.
The following facts are undisputed: (1) Dilmus's death resulted from George's operation of the tractor-trailer and the defective brakes; (2) the tractor was owned by George; (3) the trailer was owned by SG; (4) George was an independent contractor of SG and was not an insured under SG's general commercial liability policy with Auto Owners.
Because of the many different arrangements of the drivers and equipment controlling the hauling of their freight loads, it is a common industry practice for motor common carriers such as SG to obtain two separate policies of insurance to provide seamless coverage for different risks: (1) a commercial general liability policy such as the one in question, which excludes motor vehicle liability and (2) a separate policy to cover motor vehicle liability exposure. To prevent duplicative premiums and overlapping coverage, exclusions are included in the commercial general liability policy to make it clear that, although it covers most accidents in the workplace, it explicitly does not cover motor vehicle collisions. SG had such an insurance arrangement in place here, and, as motor vehicle accidents were excluded under SG's general commercial liability policy, it obtained a separate policy from Underwriters Service Company, Inc. to provide such coverage.
SG's Auto Owners policy exclusion which is in question provides as follows: "This insurance [policy] does not apply to . . . `Bodily injury' or `property damage' arising out of the ownership, maintenance, use or entrustment to others of any aircraft, `auto' or watercraft owned or operated by or rented or loaned to any insured."
Following the accident between George and Dilmus, the Stricklands filed a wron
Page 1 2 3 4 Georgia Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|