Birmingham Fire Insurance Com Pany of Pennsylvania, a Corporation v. Lee Semon, Jr., and Miriam Semon, Husband and Wife

This cause is here on appeal of plaintiff, the Birmingham Fire Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, from a judgment of the United States District Court, for the Eastern District of Washington, declaring that a policy of motor vehicle liability insurance issued by Birmingham to John Gamino, one of the defendants, covered a collision between Gamino’s Chevrolet truck-Fruehauf trailer combination and an automobile driven by Lee Semon, Jr.

The dispute stemmed from the fact that the policy did not describe this particular truck and trailer amongst the vehicles listed in its insurance clause, and the additional fact that the policy contained an express provision excluding coverage whenever a covered vehicle was towing a trailer not insured by Birmingham.

Birmingham took the position that the policy did not extend to the truck at all and that, even if it did, the exclusionary clause rendered the policy ineffective at the time of the accident. The District Judge, sitting in the dual capacity of fact finder and arbiter of the law, rejected Birmingham’s contention. He concluded that, under controlling Washington law, the Chevrolet truck was a “newly acquired” automobile within a policy…