IDS Property Casualty Ins. v. Gradek
After Ramon Rebeles parked on a frontage road, four dogs bolted out of his vehicle. Defendant Patricia Gradek was seriously injured when her bicycle collided with one of the dogs on a nearby bicycle path. The Rebeles’s insurance carrier, plaintiff IDS Property Casualty Insurance Company (plaintiff), filed a declaratory relief action alleging that the incident did not trigger insurance coverage because it did not result from a “use†of the Rebeles’s motor vehicle. (See Ins. Code, § 11580.06,[1] subd.(g).) Defendants claimed that the incident arose out of the unintentional unloading of the dogs, which constitutes a use of the motor vehicle under section 11580.06, subdivision (g).
After a court trial, the superior court found that the dogs “had completed the process of unloading†from the Rebeles vehicle when the incident occurred. The court concluded that Gradek’s injury did not result from a “use†of the motor vehicle, and entered judgment in favor of plaintiff. We affirm.
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