Mrs. and Mrs. William Dressier obtained separate judgments at law, in the amount of $7500.00 in each case, against Mrs. Gail Dressier as a result of personal injuries sustained by Mrs. Dressier while riding in аn automobile owned by her son, Dr. Stanley Dressier, and operated by his wife, Mrs. Gail Dressier. Mrs. Gail Dressier was an additional insured under defendant’s public liability policy, issued to Dr. Drеssier, and these consolidated suits were instituted to recover the amount of the two judgments.
The insuring clause obligates the insurer:
“To pay all damages which the insured shall become legally obligated to pay because of bodily injury sustained by other persons, and caused by accident arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use, including loading or unloading of the automobile. ’ ’
*516 Complainants have appealed from the Chancellor’s decree holding the insurer exempt from liability under a subsequent policy provision that the insurance afforded by the policy does not apply: .
“To bodily injury to the insured or any member of the family of the insured residing in the same household as thе insured. ’ ’
Complainants have assigned as error the Chancellor’s holding that complainants were members of Dr. Stanley Dressier’s family and residing in the same household with him on Junе 27, 1959, the date of the accident in which complainant, Mrs. "William Dressier, was injured.
Since 1949, complainants have owned a two-story residence at 2412 East Fourth Street in Chattanooga. A number of years prior to the accident this residence was converted into three apartments, the one on the ground floor consisting of six rooms, including a kitchen. The second floor consisted of a three-room apartment and a one-room apartment. The three-room apartment was rented and occupied by strangers and is not here involved. The one-room apartment with an attached bath room was furnished with two beds and a refrigerator but nо cook stove. Each apartment had a separate entrance through a hallway.
On December 15, 1958, Mr. and Mrs. William Dressier were living in the large down-stairs apartment with their son Ronald who was 20 years of age. In that month their son, Dr. Stanley Dressier, graduated from medical school in Memphis where he had been living with his wife and their infant child. Upon graduation, Dr. Dressier moved to Chattanooga to accept an internship- at Erlanger Hospital.
*517 Although Dr. Dressier and his wife later looked for other living quarters they apparently moved to Chattanooga without attempting in advance to find an apartment, expecting to live with the elder Dresslers and their son Ronаld who moved out of the down-stairs apartment and into the one-room up-stairs apartment. Dr. Dressier, his wife and child then moved into the large apartment. The eldеr Mr. Dressier was away from home most of the time but when he was at home Ronald slept in the downstairs apartment.
The Chancellor found:
“Mrs. Stanley Dressier and Mrs. "William Dressier planned the cooking together and shared the household food and maid expenses. Except for sleeping, the downstairs apartment was always open to and used by Mrs. "William Dressiеr as though it were her home. At no time prior to the accident had Dr. Dressier actually rented other quarters, though he was on the lookout for a suitable apartment. * * * The two Dressier women planned and cooked the meals that the members of the family ate. Except for sleeping, they enjoyed in common for family purposes the downstairs apartment.” The Chancellor also found that this arrangement was regarded by all of the parties as temporary.
There is no assignment оf error directed to these findings and we concur therein.
We do not have a case in Tennessee directly in point. Complainants rely upon the unreported decision of this Court in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Zimmerman (Eastern Section 1960), where the exclusionary clause here involved was held not aрplicable and the insurer liable. In that case Zimmerman, the *518 insured, and the Gants occupied the same house until the Gants could move into a house they had rentеd before moving from another state. Mrs. Gant was a sister of the insured. Zimmerman’s wife and the Gants thereafter occupied the house for about a month. Zimmerman himself sрent one or two nights there. Meals were prepared separately by the two families. As stated in the opinion, the arrangement was purely temporary аnd the two families “were about as separate as two families could be in a crowded condition like this.”
In Kirk v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,
Clauses in insuranсe contracts excluding from coverage members of the insured’s family or household are valid and binding. "Whether in a given situation the exclusion applies must depеnd in the final analysis upon the peculiar relationship of the parties. Generally, such clauses are construed strictly against the insurer but in the light of the evident purрose to exclude claims by persons in whose favor the insured would naturally be inclined to color the circumstances surrounding the accident giving rise to the clаim. 5A Am. Jur. 109, Automobile Insurance, Section 108; Tomlyanovich v. Tomlyanovich,
*519
In connection with the above cited annotation cases holding the exclusion appliсable and others holding it inapplicable are collated and digested. See also the later case of Kelso v. Kelso (Mo.),
“The above cases illustrate the danger of attempting to apply a definition of ‘family’ to a case involving an entirely different situation from the one in the case in which it has been defined without regard to the purpose intended to be accomplished by the sentence or clause in which the word is used. The obvious purpose of the clause here involved is to exempt the insurer from liability to those persons to whom the insured, on acсount *520 of close family ties, would be apt to be partial in case of injury. ’ ’
It is to be seen that no rule applicable alike to all cases can be formulated. Each case must be decided upon its own particular facts. Running through the cases, however, where a family relationship has been held to exist are such things as having the free use of the house, sharing expenses, cooking together and eating together at a common table. And, of course, the relationship of' parent and child may be presumptive of a family relationship even though the child be an adult and married with children of his or her own.
Bearing in mind that the purpose of the exclusion is to relieve the insurer of liability to persons the insured would be prone to favor and applying the guides usually applied by the Courts in such cases, above discussed, we are of opinion the Chancellor was correct in his determination of the present cases. The decree is, accordingly, affirmed.