Reversing a trial court’s decision, a California appellate court has ruled that a motor vehicle exclusion in a homeowner’s insurance policy barred coverage of claims against the insured homeowner and his wife after he accidentally ran over his two-year old granddaughter with his pickup truck in his driveway.

After Jose Bautista’s tragic accident, his insurance carrier, Farmers Insurance Exchange, sought a declaration that it was not obligated to provide coverage under the homeowner’s insurance policy it had issued with respect to the resulting action that alleged, among other things, that Mr. Bautista’s wife had negligently supervised their granddaughter. The insurer argued that the motor vehicle exclusion in the homeowner’s policy precluded any potential coverage because all of the claims in the action arose out of Mr. Bautista’s use of a motor vehicle.

The trial court denied Farmers’ motion for summary adjudication, finding that the motor vehicle exclusion in the policy did not apply. The dispute reached the court of appeal.

The Homeowner’s Insurance policy provided personal liability coverage in the amount of $300,000 per occurrence under Coverage E, which stated:

We pay those damages which an insured becomes legally obligated to pay because of bodily injury ... resulting from an occurrence to which this coverage applies.
The policy excluded from Coverage E bodily injury that:
7. results from the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of ... b. motor vehicles...”

The Appellate Court’s Decision

The appellate court rejected the trial court’s ruling. In its decision, the court of appeal explained that the coverage issue turned on whether Mr. Bautista’s alleged negligent operation of his truck and Ms. Bautista’s alleged negligent supervision of her granddaughter were dependent or independent concurrent proximate causes of the girl’s fatal injuries. It then decided that Ms. Bautista’s alleged negligent supervision of her granddaughter allowed her to become exposed to the specific hazard created by the arrival of Mr. Bautista in his truck. None of the alleged negligent supervision existed “independently of [Mr. Bautista’s] use ... of the vehicle,” the appeals court added.

Therefore, the appellate court ruled, the trial court had erred in finding that Ms. Bautista’s alleged negligent supervision of her granddaughter existed independently of the “use” of a motor vehicle. Her alleged negligence “was sufficiently related to [Mr. Bautista’s] use of the vehicle and ‘part of a course of uninterrupted conduct’ that it fell within the motor vehicle exclusion.”

Farmers had no liability under the homeowner’s insurance policy as a matter of law and was entitled to summary adjudication on its complaint and the Bautistas’ cross-complaint that it had no duty to indemnify or defend the Bautistas in the underlying action, the appellate court concluded.

The case is Farmers Ins. Exchange v. Superior Court, No. B248324 (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 28, 2013). Attorneys involved include: Archer Norris, Limor Lehavi, Mariyetta A. Meyers–Lopez; Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, Robert A. Olson and Feris M. Greenberger for Petitioner; Louis G. Fazzi and Fernando J. Bernheim for Real Parties in Interest.

Mackin’s Auto Body in Vancouver, WA, was chosen as the 2013 IMPACT I-CAR Elite Member of the year, exemplifying excellence in the collision industry.
IMPACT is the marketing arm of RDA. IMPACT provides programs to keep the collision shops competitive and I-CAR provides the education to repair the vehicles properly.
Mackin’s Auto Body is third generation family owned and operated business. Makin’s has been in business for 86 years with 8 locations in Oregon and Washington. They employ 100 people. Owners Suzanne and Larry Mackin know how to give their customers professional and reliable auto body service. They joined as an IMPACT Elite member because they see value in the many benefits the program offers. Makin’s “Does it right” every time and we are proud to call them the 2013 IMPACT I-CAR member of the year.
RDA/IMPACT is the largest national group of refinish jobbers dedicated to providing quality services and products to their collision shops. RDA has 19 members, representing 185 locations. Members service over 3,600 collision centers throughout the US and do over $400 million in sales as a group, comprising around 15% of the refinish business nationwide. Those interested in RDA/IMPACT should contact Robert McKenzie, Jr. directly at 731-217-9081 or via email at robertemckenzie@me.com. Visit their web site at www.impactcollisionsolutions.com or contact Melisa Jolls at 908-251-5713.

The Sacramento Bee has reported that Rocklin, CA, police were able to track down four auto burglary suspects – three adults and a juvenile – on Sunday after investigators found a photograph online of $120 worth of food from Carl’s Jr. that was purchased with a credit card stolen in one of the burglaries.

“I’m glad we caught them,” said Sgt. Scott Horrillo. “Sometimes, technology acts in our favor; sometimes, it doesn’t. This time it did.”

Tavion Spignor, 19, Leroy Jackson, 27, and Malek Morgan, 20, all of Sacramento, were arrested on suspicion of auto burglary, conspiracy, possession of stolen property and unauthorized use of personal ID.

They were being held at the Placer County jail in Auburn on Monday. Bond for Spignor was set at $10,000, while Jackson’s was $20,000. Morgan’s bail had not been set yet.

A 17-year-old male, also from Sacramento, was held at the county’s juvenile detention center. He faces the same charges as the other three.

On Saturday night, between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m., the four allegedly broke into four different vehicles that were parked in the Blue Oaks Town Center on Lonetree Boulevard and the nearby Staybridge Suites Hotel parking lots in Rocklin.

According to police, they smashed in car windows and grabbed GPS units, wallets and other items that had been left in plain sight.

Shortly after midnight, one of the victims who had caught a movie at the Blue Oaks Town Center theater came out to find her vehicle burglarized and reported the crime. She learned that about an hour earlier, around 11 p.m., one of her credit cards had been used at the nearby Carl’s Jr. restaurant to pay for $120 worth of food.

Investigators contacted the restaurant manager, who remembered a large drive-through order that was paid by credit card. According to police, the manager, who was not identified, had thought the order was suspicious and had taken down the license plate number of the vehicle.

She also thought she recognized one of the suspects as a student at a local high school, and told detectives that photos from the Carl’s Jr. order had been posted on Instagram.

Katelyn Hubick, 20, who was working as a shift leader at the Carl’s Jr. restaurant Saturday night, gave a slightly different account of what happened. She said that a trainee had taken the order.

“They came through and they said they would pay for the person behind them,” said Hubick.

“I was the one who wrote down the license plate, because I thought it was weird. We never see orders that big, never. And the fact that they would pay for the person behind them, and didn’t know how much that order was, I told (the trainee), ‘This is weird.’ ”

Hubick said the order included five $6 burgers, five orange creme shakes, three barbeque chicken quesadillas, one bacon Swiss chicken sandwich, two double western sandwiches, two orders of fried zucchini, six orders of cross-cut fries, two teriyaki burgers, with added bacon, two barbeque chicken sandwiches, with added bacon, five southwest chicken tacos, with added sour cream. The total came out to $119.95.

Hubick said her twin sister, Danielle, prepared the food while she went outside to get the license plate of the car, a Buick that pulled around and parked in front of the restaurant to wait for the food to be delivered.

“I went out and parked behind them and shined the lights on them and got the license plate,’ she said. “They started acting all weird – they were looking back and fidgeting.”

After they left, Hubick said the trainee decided to snap a picture of the receipt from the order and posted it on Instagram because it was the largest order she had seen.

A friend of the food service worker saw the photo and told her, “I know the person because they posted a photo of all the food,” according to Hubick. The friend had been following the juvenile suspect’s Instagram feed.

Horrillo confirmed that the photos were taken by the juvenile suspect, and that detectives were able to identify him and learn that the suspects were planning to return to Rocklin Sunday night.

Officers were on the lookout for the Buick, which belonged to Spignor. At 9 p.m. Sunday, an officer spotted the Buick speed by him, going west on Sunset Boulevard. The car then pulled into a Walgreens parking lot at Park Drive and Sunset Boulevard.

Horillo said that the suspects went into the Walgreens and were coming out of the store when the officer detained them.

A search of the Buick turned up items that were stolen in the auto burglaries Saturday night, as well as things that were taken in an unreported auto burglary in Roseville about an hour before the Walgreens stop.

Hubick said she was glad that the burglary suspects were caught.

“I think they’re kind of stupid,” she said of the suspects’ postings. “I think social networking is helping to catch people.”

Three people were injured at Tesla Motors Inc.'s factory in California on Nov. 13 after a low-pressure aluminum casting press failed, the company said.

Local fire officials said there was no fire at the company's Fremont factory, describing the incident as an "industrial accident."

"There was a failure in a low-pressure aluminum casting press," Tesla said in a statement Wednesday. "Three employees were injured by hot metal from that press."

The company, which makes the Model S electric sedan at the factory, could not be immediately reached for further details.

Shares in Tesla fell after early news reports of the incident but later rebounded.

This is the latest in a string of setbacks for Tesla, which began in early October when a Model S caught fire. There have been three fires so far, two of which occurred after the car struck debris while on the road.