Q

A garage policy insured was using one of his trucks to pull a customer's semitrailer from one lot to another when the trailer came loose and struck a car in an intersection. The liability insurance is written with coverage keyed to symbol 21, “any auto,” but we are having difficulty with subparagraph C of Section I, Covered Autos. This says that any liability insurance also applies to (1) small trailers and (2) temporary substitute autos.

An adjuster says that subparagraph C limits the garage liability coverage to small trailers only and that there is no coverage for this semitrailer accident. Can you help us refute that position?

South Carolina Subscriber

A

With liability coverage keyed to symbol 21, the insured is protected against claims for bodily injury or property damage or both involving “any auto.”  By definition in the contract, “auto” includes trailers and semitrailers. In consequence, the extension in subparagraph C to small trailers and temporary substitute autos is meaningless.

Subparagraph C is of much more importance in the business auto policy (remember that some of these provisions are identical, form to form). If it should happen that the BAP or (much less commonly) the garage policy were to be written with liability coverage restricted to certain autos (owned only, scheduled only, etc.) then subparagraph C provides the required extension to some trailers and to substitute autos

If liability coverage responds to “any auto,” then subparagraph C is redundant.