Plaintiffs, appellants, are husband and wife, John and Hermain Wisdom, and their son Bobbie Lee Wisdom and they have brought this action against an insurance company which had issued an automobile garage liability policy to plaintiff John Wisdom. During the effective period of the policy, on August 9, 1958, Bobbie Lee Wisdom, then a minor, drove an automobile which became involved in an accident in which persons named Moore and Vierra were injured. The automobile driven by Bobbie was not owned by the Wisdoms, but by Virgil Scott, who is not a party to this case. There is no allegation that the son was agent of his parents at the time. The Wisdoms, father and mother, had signed a driver’s license application for their son. The injured persons brought an action against all of the Wisdoms. Demand was made upon defendant herein to provide defense, but it refused to do so. Judgments totaling $18,732.50 were awarded to the injured parties against Bobbie Lee Wisdom, and judgment against the senior Wisdoms in amount $10,000, as the maximum allowable for injuries to more than one person by imputed liability because of signing the application, under Vehicle Code section 17709.
*604 Demurrer to plaintiffs’ complaint on the insurance policy was sustained with leave to amend, plaintiffs declined to amend, judgment for defendant was entered, and from this plaintiffs appeal.
Appellants’ contentions are: (1) that the insurance policy is an “operator’s policy”; (2) that under section 415 of the Vehicle Code (this was the number of the code section at the time of the accident), an operator’s policy must cover liability imposed on the insured arising out of use by him of a non-owned motor vehicle; and (3) that use by the insured includes use by anyone whose application for driver’s license was signed by the insured.
The policy contains the following clause with reference to non-owned automobiles: “Definition of Hazards . . . Division 2—Premises—Operations—Automobiles Not Owned or Hired: The ownership, maintenance or use of the premises for the purpose of an automobile repair shop, service station, storage garage or public parking place, and all operations necessary or incidental thereto; and the use in connection with the above defined operations of any automobile not owned or hired by the named insured, a partner therein or a member of the household of any such person.” It will be observed that the policy limits the coverage to use in connection with the garage operations. This limitation, however, cannot avail respondent if the policy is an operator’s policy, because section 415 of the Vehicle Code is incorporated into every such policy.
(Interinsurance Exchange
v.
Ohio Casualty Ins. Co.,
The Vehicle Code does not define “operator’s policy.” It is evident, however, from reading section 415 (since 1959, by reading sections 16450, 16451 and 16452 of the Vehicle Code) that distinction is made between an “owner’s policy” and an *605 “operator’s policy,” the former covering particular vehicles, and the latter covering persons using nonowned vehicles. Because of our decision, expressed below, as to the meaning of the code section relating to use of nonowned vehicles, and because of the lack of definition of “operator’s policy,” we shall assume, for present purposes, without deciding, that Division 2 of the garage owner’s policy constitutes an operator’s policy, and that under the Vehicle Code section it is not limited to the garage operations.
We are of the opinion that the code section, by its requirement that the policy cover liability imposed “on him” by law for damages arising out of use by “him” of any motor vehicle not owned by “him” (the antecedent of the pronoun being “the person named as insured”), does not incorporate into the policy coverage for liability imposed on the named insured for damages arising out of use by his son, whose application the insured had signed. We believe “use by him” does not mean “use by him or by anyone through whose use liability may be imputed to him.” We recognize that the purpose of financial responsibility laws is to give monetary protection to the persons lawfully using the highways, and that they are to be construed liberally.
(Continental Casualty Co.
v.
Phoenix Constr. Co.,
Whether such allegations would have brought the ease within section 415, we need not decide.
A brief discussion of three cases cited by appellants is in order. In each of them there was no problem of interpretation of a statute, but of interpretation of an insurance policy, so that the familiar rule would apply that in insurance law any ambiguity or uncertainty in the policy is to be resolved against the insurer. In
City of Santa Monica
v.
Royal Indemnity Co.,
In all of these cases, the terms of insurance voluntarily selected by the carrier were quite different from the statutory liability imposed by section 415 of the Vehicle Code.
Judgment affirmed.
Draper, P. J., and Salsman, J., concurred.
Notes
This part of former section 415 of the Vehicle Code has become, by general revision and renumbering of that code, section 16452 thereof.