Transport Indemnity Co. v. Royal Insurance

*252 Opinion

In this case, we consider the issue of primary versus excess insurance coverage as between two insurance carriers which insured various portions of a truck tractor/trailer rig involved in an accident. We conclude that the policy which described the entire rig as an “owned” vehicle is primary and affirm the judgment.

I. The Facts and Procedure

Transport Indemnity Company (Transport) wrote a policy of motor vehicle liability insurance for Orsetti Trucking Co. (Orsetti) covering vehicles operated by it. The trailer portion of a truck tractor/trailer rig driven by an Orsetti employee struck a United Parcel Service step-van, injuring the driver of the van. The truck tractor/trailer rig in question was composed of three major components: a 1974 White Freightliner truck tractor owned by Orsetti and two semitrailers owned by R & A Trucking (R & A). Orsetti had possession of the two semitrailers by virtue of a subhaul agreement with R & A which provided that Orsetti would lease the trailers and carry designated loads for R & A. The subhaul agreement required Orsetti to maintain liability insurance covering its use of R & A’s trailers (the Transport policy). At the same…

I respectfully dissent.

To those whose professional lives allow them the privilege of reading daily the Insurance Code 1 it is ingrained lore that the writers of that document in sections 11580.8 and 11580.9 went out of their legislative way to put in letters six feet tall that they were upset with the volume of litigation identical to that at hand which was constipating the court systems, i.e., coverage litigation among and between insurance carriers. For the purpose of minimizing coverage litigation a statutory scheme of conclusive presumptions was established. (§ 11580.8; Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Co. v. Agency Rent-A-Car, Inc. (1982) 126 Cal.App.3d 764 , 767-768 [ 180 Cal.Rptr. 546 ].)

*257 Today’s decision insures that the Legislature’s chance of minimizing such litigation is minimal. It guarantees that despite the clear wording of the statute involved and the interpretative case authority, gossamer distinctions should be found, ad hoc fairness determinations should be made and litigation should be encouraged.

The only question as to which there is disagreement in this court is whether the Orsetti rig—Orsetti’s tractor and the two R & A trailers—constitutes “the same…

In this case, we consider the issue of primary versus excess insurance coverage as between two insurance carriers which insured various portions of a truck tractor/trailer rig involved in an accident. We conclude that the policy which described the entire rig as an "owned" vehicle is primary and affirm the judgment.

Transport Indemnity Company (Transport) wrote a policy of motor vehicle liability insurance for Orsetti Trucking Co. (Orsetti) covering vehicles operated by it. The trailer portion of a truck tractor/trailer rig driven by an Orsetti employee struck a United Parcel Service step-van, injuring the driver of the van. The truck tractor/trailer rig in question was composed of three major components: a 1974 White Freightliner truck tractor owned by Orsetti and two semitrailers owned by R & A Trucking (R & A). Orsetti had possession of the two semitrailers by virtue of a subhaul agreement with R & A which provided that Orsetti would lease the trailers and carry designated loads for R & A. The subhaul agreement required Orsetti to maintain liability insurance covering its use of R & A's trailers (the Transport policy). At the same time, R & A had its own…