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State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Stockley5/24/2005
, 451 (Mo. App. E.D. 1998) (insured bears burden to prove that policy definition included claims).
B. Design of the Tug
The parties agree that the tug was a four-wheeled land motor vehicle. The only issue is whether it was "designed for use mainly on public roads." In determining whether a dune buggy was covered by a virtually identical phrase in another State Farm policy--"designed for use mainly off public roads"--this Court held that the policy was not ambiguous simply because it did not define whose designs should be considered:
The word "designed" clearly implies the plans of those individuals who engineered the vehicle originally plus the plan of any person who significantly modified the vehicle. The language is not ambiguous.
Meeks v. Berkbuegler , 632 S.W.2d 24, 26 (Mo. App. E.D. 1982). In Meeks , the directed verdict in favor of State Farm was affirmed based on evidence that the original designers clearly intended the dune buggy to be used off the road, that the original manufacturer's design did not even meet the requirements for licensing and that the consumer, who built the vehicle from a kit and added equipment to qualify it for licensing, planned to use the buggy primarily off public roads and actually used the vehicle primarily off public roads. Id. at 26. The court also noted that, without an external shell, the vehicle was "little more than a four-wheeled rail with a roll-cage" and that, even with the consumer's modifications and licensing, the vehicle was not transformed into a "standard on-the-road vehicle." Id.
In this case, Stockley failed to prove that the tug was designed for use mainly on public roads. In fact, the only evidence of the plans of those individuals who engineered the vehicle originally supports the opposite conclusion. John Barclay was a manufacturing manager for 19 years with the company that made this tug. He was not an engineer. He testified that this model tug was designed basically to move baggage and was not designed for use mainly on public roads. Barclay had met with TWA to discuss its intentions to use the tug to move baggage and freight. Besides baggage handling, Barclay testified, the tug was also used at industrial plants to move materials from rail docks to assembly lines and in the package industry to move air freight. Barclay testified that the tug would not be capable of performing on public roads because (1) it has a maximum speed of 13.8 miles per hour with a short wheel base that makes it difficult to control at higher speeds; (2) the headlights use 55-watt floodlight bulbs and have no dimmer switch or high/low beam function; (3) the front tires are slow-speed tires; (4) the cab windshield is not laminated; and (5) there are no brakes on the front wheels. Although the tug involved in this accident was manufactured shortly after Barclay started working for the company, the design work for that model tug had taken place and production had begun before Barclay started working there. He was not personally involved in the design work. Nevertheless, as a manufacturing manager, Barclay was responsible for all design aspects of the tug and reviewed the total design of the tug.
A mechanical and automotive engineer retained by State Farm also opined that, based on his visual inspection and a review of an operator's manual he received from counsel, this tug was not designed for use mainly on public roads. He had not investigated the original design plans of the manufacturer of the tug and did not know whether the tug had been modified since it was produced. In fact, the only testimony regarding modification of the tug came from Stockley, who claimed that the diesel engine had been replaced with a
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