Bachman

[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *Page 467 This is an action to recover from an insurance carrier the amount of a judgment rendered against the insured in favor of a guest injured while riding in an automobile. Respondent recovered judgment from the insurance carrier by whom this appeal is prosecuted. Katie Bachman was the owner of the automobile in question and the insured named in the policy of public liability indemnity insurance written by appellant to indemnify her against loss following accidental injury to others. On June 18, 1927, she desired to go from Fresno to San Francisco, and return, in her automobile. She invited Leo Bachman, the respondent; Joseph V. Steele, her nephew-in-law, and his wife, and Forest Bayliss to accompany her upon this trip. As she did not drive the car, Forest Bayliss was taken along to assist Leo Bachman in driving. Leo Bachman was the minor son of Katie Bachman, and Forest Bayliss was her son-in-law. Upon the return trip from San Francisco to Fresno, on June 19, 1927, Bayliss drove the automobile. Mrs. Bachman rode on the front seat by his side.…

Amici curiae have appeared in this action in support of the petition for a rehearing and urge that the opinion of this court might be construed as laying down a general rule to the effect that where a policy of indemnity insurance provides that the insured give the insurer immediate notice of an accident and also send to it copies of any summons and complaint served upon him, the immediate notice of the accident may be dispensed with and that the sending to the insurer of the summons and complaint served on the insured would be a sufficient notice in all cases, contrary to the rule laid down in the case of Aronson v. Frankfort etc. Ins. Co., 9 Cal.App. 473 [ 99 P. 537 ]. No such attempt was made in this opinion to establish any such general rule. An opinion of an appellate court should be read and construed in the light of the facts of the case before it. The Aronson case holds that the insurer was entitled to notice of the accident immediately or within a reasonable time after its occurrence. What is a reasonable time within which an act may be performed depends upon the facts of a case. In the instant case the named insured was killed, and her driver, Forest Bayliss, who became…