Smith v. National Union Insurance

This is an appeal by defendant National Union Insurance Company from a judgment in favor of plaintiffs Smith and the cross-defendant Insurance Company of North America in an action for declaratory relief. The basic question presented for the trial court’s decision was whether or not plaintiffs Smith, the consignees of a shipment of liquor which was being unloaded from a truck upon premises maintained by them, were additional insureds under the trucker’s policy (issued by appellant as insurer) with respect to an injury sustained by the trucker’s employee as the result of the negligent maintenance of plaintiffs’ premises.

The trial court sustained the contention advanced by plaintiffs and by Insurance Company of North America, their insurer, that plaintiffs were “users” of the truck during the course of its unloading and therefore were additional insureds under the policy issued by appellant to the owner of the truck and hence that the injuries sustained by the truck driver during the *528 unloading of the insured vehicle were covered by appellant’s policy. We have concluded that this determination was erroneous and that the judgment must be reversed.

The determinative…