Dycus v. Member Select Insurance Company

Kimberly Sheridan and Michael Becker (Atlanta, GA) (Commercial Auto/Coverage) obtained Dismissal of a direct action against MemberSelect Insurance Company in a commercial motor vehicle claim. Plaintiff alleged he was injured by Reverend Gaines, who was returning from a religious conference and pulling a trailer of parishioners’ luggage and insured by an MSIC personal lines policy. Plaintiff alleged that because his vehicle and trailer together exceeded 10,000 pounds, and because he was operating his vehicle “for hire,” Rev. Gaines was a motor carrier and filed a direct action against MSIC. Plaintiff refused a tender of the policy limits, opting instead to advance a novel theory that MSIC should have known that their insured would be, at times, a motor carrier and therefore should have sold him a commercial liability auto policy with the statutorily required limits rather than a personal lines policy. Following discovery counsel moved for summary judgment arguing that if Rev. Gaines was “for hire,” coverage was wholly excluded by the business use exclusion in his personal lines policy; alternatively, if he was not “for hire,” then he did not meet the statutory definition of a motor carrier and therefore a direct action against MSIC was not authorized by law. Faced with committing to either position, Plaintiff dismissed MSIC.