Loading Accident Covered Under Automobile Liability

Commercial Auto Liability	Transportation of Persons
Commercial General Liability	Exclusion

This case proves helpful in defining "loading or unloading" and determining how automobile liability insurance and general liability insurance respond to claims arising from such commercial operations.

A business engaged in the transportation of elderly and disabled people by vans equipped for the purpose carried its automobile liability insurance in one major insurer and its general liability insurance in another. The estate of an elderly woman sued the insured for damages resulting from injuries suffered by the woman and her subsequent death. Two employees had strapped her into her wheelchair in her upstairs bedroom. They then carried her downstairs to the front porch of her residence, toward a parked van for transportation to an adult day-care center. Unfortunately, one of the employees lost his footing on the porch. The wheelchair (with the woman in it) tumbled down the porch steps to the below pavement.

Each insurer filed a motion for summary judgment in its favor, the issue being the application of the two policies in the circumstances. The automobile policy, under liability coverage, defined a covered "accident" to include "....the loading or unloading of an auto." On the other hand, the general liability policy contained an exclusion for "loading or unloading of....any automobile...."

An appeal followed the trial court's granting of the motion by the general liability insurer and denying that of the automobile liability carrier "on the grounds that the accident arose out of the 'loading' of the van."

The appeal court cited three prior Massachusetts cases in which it formulated its position on the issue at hand. It stated that it "has adopted the 'complete operation' rule and rejected the narrower 'coming to rest' doctrine in construing such 'loading and unloading' clauses in automobile liability insurance policies." It said that it defined the operation of unloading as "a continuous transaction ending with the deposit of the goods in the hands of the purchaser." It was concluded that the attendants were "in the process" of loading the lady into the van.

The order of the trial court was affirmed that denied the motion of the automobile liability insurer for declaratory relief and that allowed the motion of the general liability insurer for summary judgment. The appeal court said that, whereas the "loading and unloading" language was similar in both policies, it must be interpreted in the same manner in the general liability policy, where it was an exclusion.

The Travelers Insurance Company, Appellant v. Aetna Life And Casualty Company, Appellee. Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Middlesex. June 4, 1991. 410 Mass. 1002, 571 N.E.2d 1383. CCH 1991-92 Fire and Casualty Cases, Paragraph 3392.