51 Mass. App. Ct. 870 | Mass. App. Ct. | 2001
Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance Company (Hing-ham Mutual) appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court concluding that a homeowners’ insurance policy provided indemnity coverage for injuries sustained by Tracey J. MacLean (plaintiff) in an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) accident. We affirm.
The material facts are not in dispute. During the early evening of April 11, 1993, the plaintiff was injured when the three-wheeled ATV on which she was a passenger hit a swing set. The ATV was owned by Edward Burrill and was being operated by his friend, Jeffrey MacLean, at the time of the accident. The accident occurred on the lawn of a school yard that was adjacent
The plaintiff filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in which she sought, inter alla, a determination that the policy provided coverage for the injuries she sustained in the accident. Subsequently, a judge of the Superior Court granted partial summary judgment declaring Hingham Mutual hable under the policy. She concluded that because the ATV was not required to be registered with the Registry of Motor Vehicles under G. L. c. 90, it fell within a policy exception to the motor vehicle exclusion. Final judgment entered in favor of the plaintiff, and Hingham Mutual now appeals.
The sole issue on appeal is the applicability of the exception to the motor vehicle exclusion set forth in the policy. We hold that, upon a proper interpretation, the exception to the motor vehicle exclusion applies and the policy provides coverage for the plaintiff’s injuries.
Pursuant to section i.e.(l) of the “Exclusions” portion of the policy, coverage for personal liability and medical payments to others does not apply to bodily injury arising out of “the ownership, maintenance, use, loading or unloading of motor vehicles or all other motorized land conveyances, including trailers, owned or operated by or rented or loaned to an insured” (emphasis added). The plaintiff’s injuries arose from the use of an ATV, a motorized land conveyance, that was both loaned to and operated by an insured, namely Jeffrey MacLean. Were the exclusion the only policy provision speaking to the issue, the plaintiff’s injuries would not be covered. However, the policy also contains an exception to the exclusion, which states: “This exclusion does not apply to: . . . (2) a motorized land conveyance designed for recreational use off public roads, not subject to motor vehicle registration and: (a) not owned by an insured.”
Neither the plaintiff nor Hingham Mutual takes issue with the
We determine that the Superior Court judge was correct in concluding, on the facts of this case, that because the ATV in question is not subject to motor vehicle registration under G. L. c. 90, but instead is subject only to environmental registration under G. L. c. 90B, the exception to the exclusion applies. We find support for this conclusion in the language of the exclusion and the exception, considered in the context of the respective statutes, common understanding and usage, and the risks contemplated by homeowners’ policies.
We begin by considering whether an ATV is a “motor vehicle” that is subject to motor vehicle registration under G. L. c. 90. General Laws c. 90, § 1, defines “[mjotor vehicles,” with certain specified exceptions,
An ATV, as an off-road recreational vehicle, is subject only to environmental registration under a separate statutory provision, G. L. c. 90B, dealing with motor boats and recreational vehicles.
We recognize that the definition of “recreational vehicle” in G. L. c. 90B states that it is a “motor vehicle.” However, we do not believe that the use of the term “motor vehicle” in the definition of a “recreational vehicle” brings ATVs within the category of vehicles that are subject to “motor vehicle” registration within the meaning of the policy.
We find further support for our conclusion that an ATV is “not subject to motor vehicle registration” within the meaning of the policy by considering how motor vehicles are commonly understood and used and what risks are typically excluded from coverage under a homeowners’ policy. In common understanding and usage, certain motorized products, even those capable of speeds exceeding twelve miles per hour, such as tractors or riding lawnmowers, are not motor vehicles because they are not designed for regular use in the transportation of persons and property on the traveled part of public highways. See Deere & Co. v. Ford, 434 Mass. at 229. ATVs are like tractors and riding lawnmowers in this respect.
Moreover, motor vehicles, being designed for use on the traveled part of ways, are more commonplace, and typically involve more catastrophic losses, than ATVs. Therefore, speaking broadly, risks associated with the operation of a “motor vehicle,” as defined in G. L. c. 90, are specifically covered by a motor vehicle liability policy. In contrast, ATVs and other specialized recreational “vehicles” that are used off-road and pose correspondingly lower risks, are not subject to motor vehicle insurance requirements, compare Arbella Mut. Ins. Co. v. Vynorious, 34 Mass. App. Ct. at 124-125, and would fall within the purview of a homeowners’ policy.
Accordingly, we conclude that the exception to the policy exclusion is applicable in the present case, and that the plaintiff’s injuries are covered under the homeowners’ insurance policy.
Judgment affirmed.
The exceptions are “railroad and railway cars, vehicles operated by the system known as trolley motor or trackless trolley under chapter one hundred and sixty-three or section ten of chapter five hundred and forty-four of the acts of nineteen hundred and forty-seven, vehicles running only upon rails or tracks, vehicles used for other purposes than the transportation of property and incapable of being driven at a speed exceeding twelve miles per hour and which are used exclusively for the building, repair and maintenance of
From this record we are unable to determine whether an ATV falls within the ambit of the statutory exception to the definition of a “motor vehicle” as being incapable of being driven at a speed greater than twelve miles per hour. We assume for purposes of this opinion that it does not.
A “[r]ecreational vehicle” is defined as “any motor vehicle designed or modified for use over unimproved terrain if used for recreation or pleasure off a public way as defined in chapter ninety, and all legally registered motor vehicles when used off a way, as defined under chapter ninety.” G. L. c. 90B, § 20.
“It is also appropriate to consider ‘what an objectively reasonable insured, reading the relevant policy language, would expect to be covered.’ ” Hingham
We note that exclusionary policy terms and doubts created by any potentially ambiguous words in a policy are to be strictly construed against the insurer. See Shamban v. Worcester Ins. Co., 47 Mass. App. Ct. 10, 16 (1999).