Grisham

“The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.” (Shakespeare, Hamlet, act V, scene 1.) Here, Dwayne Vandagriff’s dog elected to have his day by biting Robert A. Grisham’s leg after escaping from Vandagriff’s parked pickup truck. In this resulting insurance coverage action, plaintiff State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (State Farm) obtained a judgment declaring that it had no duty to defend or indemnify Vandagriff, its insured, for injuries sustained by Grisham.

In this appeal by Grisham, we resolve the issue of whether Vandagriff’s auto liability insurance policy covers Grisham’s injury because that injury allegedly was “caused by accident resulting from the . . . use of’ Vandagriff” s truck. We conclude there is no coverage and affirm the judgment.

Background

This matter was tried to the court on an agreed statement of facts.

On May 14, 2001, Vandagriff drove his pickup truck to Old Town Auburn to visit a friend briefly. He had his two dogs with him in the bed of the truck, which was covered by a camper shell. Vandagriff left the slider windows on both sides of the camper shell slightly ajar; the slider windows did not have locking mechanisms. He placed a…