Getty Oil Co. v. Hartford Insurance Group

Opinion

FLEMING, J.

Alfred Kingsley, a truck driver for Seaside Oil Company, slipped and fell while delivering crude oil to the Getty Oil Company’s

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Gaviota terminal. This declaratory rehef action seeks to determine whether The Travelers Insurance Company, which provided premises liability insurance for Getty, or The Hartford Insurance Group, which provided automobile liability insurance for Seaside, covers Getty’s liability for Kingsley’s injuries. If Hartford’s insurance applies its coverage is primary and the case is concluded, because Hartford has already settled Kingsley’s claim within liability limits. The trial court found that Hartford’s insurance did apply, and Hartford has appealed.

The facts are stipulated: Kingsley had hauled crude oil in Seaside’s truck to Getty’s Gaviota terminal many times. He always unloaded at the same spot. As a general rule he would pull up to the unloading station, shut off his engine, and hook up the static straps. He would then attach an unloading spout, open the valve, and drain the oil from the truck. After replacing the spout, he would ordinarily mop up any spilled crude oil. The unloading operation took about half an hour. Oil was sometimes spilled, sometimes not. Kingsley tried to mop up after each unloading and would do a thorough mop-up after his last load.

Getty was responsible for taking care of oil spills. It provided a mop and “KD solution” for the truck drivers to use. The KD solution, or solvent, left the cement surface slippery and took more than two and á half hours to dry.

On 3 May 1967 Kingsley made his first delivery to Getty without incident. At the time of unloading he noticed oil in the area where he subsequently fell, but no additional spillage occurred. Kingsley has no recollection of mopping up after his first unloading. Two to two and a half hours later he returned with a second load of crude oil. Other trucks could have unloaded at that spot between his trips, but so far as Kingsley knew none had done so. He noticed a KD slick when he arrived the second time. Kingsley “got out of the tractor cab, hooked up the truck’s static straps and opened the valve to let the crude oil run into the sump. He then walked back to the trailer, took the cap off the manifold of the trailer and stepped up on a curb which was raised approximately 12 inches above the cement surface where the truck was parked to get the unloading spout. He picked up the unloading spout and stepped back off the curb when his feet slipped out from under him and he fell on his knees.”