This is a case between two establishments, a service station and a Bronx flower shop, as well as the insurance companies of each of these two establishments and is about the commercial truck accident, which occurred in the flower shop and in the service station.
The owner of the truck is a couple who has been a regular customer of the service station for quite a long time. When the male owner died, the female owner wanted the truck to be sold for $100. She asked the male manager of the service station to sell the truck. He agreed to do so and went to the residence of the owners to retrieve the truck. Because the car couldn’t start, he towed the car to his service station, all with the permission and consent of the female owner.
After the male manager had repaired the car, he placed a “for sale” sign on the car and parked it on the southern side of the service station. The truck’s front end was facing the northern part towards the flower shop. Te flower shop was adjacent to the service station’s north line. The truck was parked on that area for two to three weeks, before the commercial truck accident happened.
On January 8, 1965, the male manager closed the service station at around 9 in the evening. In the morning of January 9, 1965, the male manager received a call from the village policeman. The male manager went to the service station and saw that the truck had collided with the flower shop. The flower shop’s windows were broken. The male manager called the female owner and told her what had happened so she reported the commercial truck accident to her insurance company. The male manager also reported the event to his insurance company.
The owner of the flower shop filed an action against the male manager of the service station and the female owner of the truck, because of the damages to properties that had happened. The flower shop’s owner claimed that the commercial truck accident was due to the negligence on the part of the male manager in terms of parking the truck. The male manager’s insurance company wrote and demanded the female owner’s insurance company to furnish the coverage of the accident because the male manager was insured under the provision of the policy of the female owner’s insurance company.
However, the Long Island insurance company of the female owner told that of the male manager’s that it would not honor the male manager’s coverage. The insurance company said that the coverage policy does not apply to the service station’s operators, with respect to the accidents that may arise out of the operation. The case went on and decided the judgment against the male manager.
The action made by the male manager’s insurance company is for the judgment against the insurance company of the female owner, for an amount of $1246.97. The amount is for the judgment in the action made by the owner of the flower shop. The whole amount came out of the damages, the defense’s legal expenses and prosecution’s legal defenses.
The policy of the insurance company of the female owner says that the amount paid by the insurance company will be due to the damages incurred and that the damages may include personal injury or damage to the properties.
The policy also defined the term ‘insured’. The unqualified word ‘insured’ may mean the name of the person insured, whether the person is an individual, a spouse or someone who was using the vehicle in the course of the accident, provided that the owner of the vehicle permitted that person to use the vehicle. They are the ones who are responsible for the use of the vehicle.
When the male manager took the truck from the female owner’s residence, with the keys in it, placed the sign on the truck and parked the truck on the service station, the male manager used the truck with the female owner’s permission. This means that the female owner gave her consent to the male manager’s use of the truck. When the male manager used the vehicle, he became a part of the provisions, “while using” and the “actual use”, of the insurance policy. The male manager also became an additional insured, based on the provisions of the insurance policy.
As the male manager became an added insured under the insurance policy of the female owner, the female owner’s insurance company has to pay the amount that the male manager has to pay. This is because of the commercial truck accident happened when he “used” the truck.
Even though the commercial truck accident has already happened two to three weeks after the truck was being parked on the service station, the truck was not moved from the time it was parked there until the morning of the commercial truck accident. There is no evidence saying that someone has seen the accident happening. There is no evidence saying that someone did something on the truck, which made the truck to move and collide with the flower shop, as well. It is also speculation that there is a third party that may have intervened and caused the truck to move from its initial position. There is no evidence saying that an independent act or intervening cause had occurred to cause the accident.
The court found that the commercial truck accident occurred in the flower shop, which resulted to damage to properties, was caused by the male manager’s decision to park it in front of the flower shop on the service station. However, the male manager did not use the truck during the service station’s business operations and the commercial truck accident did not happen during the service station’s business operation, as well. The male manager did not become a part of the policy’s exclusionary provision, as he became an added insured.
The male manager’s insurance company is entitled to receive an amount of $1246.97 from the insurance company of the female owner. The amount is based on the judgment amount paid by the male manager’s insurance company as payment for the action made by the flower shop. The female owner’s insurance company also needs to pay another $1080.85 to the male manager’s insurance company for the expenses incurred in the defense of the male manager in the court trials with cost of interest.
Being involved with commercial truck accident can be time consuming and costly. Recovering from the physical injuries and damages to properties can also be very stressful. At Stephen Bilkis and Associates we are willing to help you with you if you are met with the same kind of situation described above. We have a team of expert insurance lawyers and we have offices in Florida as well as other cities in the country. Help will come your way if you went to the right agency. We can also represent you if you become a victim of criminal cases and help you demand compensation for damages and suffering. You don’t have to worry about not being represented properly because our team of lawyers has many years of experience in many kinds of legal proceedings.