Moblad v. Western Indemnity Co. of Dallas

LANGDON, P. J.

The only question presented upon this appeal is as to the construction of the following clause of a policy of insurance: “In consideration of an additional premium of $50, this policy is hereby extended to indemnify the assured against loss or damage to any automobile described in the schedule of statements, including operating equipment while attached thereto,

.if caused solely by collision with another object,

while such automobile is used as described in said schedule. ...” The plaintiff and appellant

[684]

was the owner of the automobile covered by said policy of insurance. The automobile was damaged as the result of an accident. The question presented is: Was said damage caused solely by collision with another object within the meaning of the clause above quoted?

The facts with reference to the accident were found by the trial court to be: “While plaintiff’s automobile was being driven by a person over the age of twenty-one years, along the Sky-line Boulevard, in Redwood Canyon, Alameda County, California, on the said thirteenth day of October, 1918, the driver of said automobile, to avoid striking another automobile, swerved to the outer edge of the roadway, and said roadway gave way, causing said automobile to run down an embankment, and, after leaving said roadway, to overturn, and roll down the side of a mountain. That plaintiff’s said automobile did not strike or collide with any object upon the said roadway, nor did said automobile strike or collide with any object upon the said embankment or mountainside prior to the time said automobile overturned; that after overturning, skid automobile rolled down the side of said mountain, and, in so rolling, came in contact with the ground and such objects as lay thereon; that none of the objects with which said automobile came in contact caused said automobile to leave the roadway or to go down said embankment, or caused said automobile to overturn, and that said automobile did not in leaving said roadway, or in overturning and rolling down said mountainside, collide with or hit any tree or fence, but that said automobile upon overturning, and in the course of rolling down said mountainside, came in contact with the ground along said mountainside, and at the bottom of the canyon and brush and shrubbery and other objects on the ground upon said mountainside and bottom of canyon.”