Gardner

Plaintiff Mid-Century Insurance Company brought this action for a declaration that it had no duty to pay benefits to its insured, defendant Ron Gardner, for personal injuries he sustained in an accident with an uninsured driver. It claimed the policy Mr. Gardner had purchased offered no coverage. The parties stipulated to a trial before a temporary judge, who ruled in the plaintiff insurer’s favor and entered judgment accordingly. With respect to the explicit basis for the ruling, Mr. Gardner asserts the temporary judge improperly disregarded the corporate form of his business in applying one of the policy’s exclusions. Mr. Gardner also argues that neither of the other policy exclusions urged below by the plaintiff insurer has any application to the facts of this case. We agree and shall reverse.

Background

The matter was submitted to the temporary judge on deposition excerpts and exhibits, which make for disjointed reading on appeal. We shall do our best to assemble the pertinent facts from this record, with any conflicts resolved or inferences drawn in favor of the judgment.

Saving the facts of disputed significance for the discussion, we begin with those which serve…