State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance v. Cummings

Defendants Paul and Gladys Cummings; Odie H. Pollard; and Owen (Monk) Walters and Earl Elledge, individually and as, co-partners doing business as “Monk and Earl’s Seaside Service,” appeal from a judgment for plaintiff insurer in a declaratory relief action. The action arose from the following circumstances:

The Cummings were the named insureds in a policy of standard automobile indemnity insurance (personal injury and property damage) issued to them by plaintiff State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Coverage extended includes “all sums which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay . . . because of (A) bodily injury sustáined by other persons . . . caused by accident arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use, including loading or unloading, of the owned automobile . . . .”

On October 12, 1966, Cummings, while driving his insured vehicle, suffered an accident. Pollard was riding with him in the car. No other vehicle was involved. Cummings and Pollard, claiming injuries, brought an action against Walters and Elledge for their alleged negligent brake repair on the Cummings vehicle said to have caused the accident. Walters and Elledge tendered…