Safety Insurance Company v. Chau, et al. (Lawyers Weekly No. 09-005-17)
1 COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS SUFFOLK, ss. SUPERIOR COURT SUCV2015-02554-BLS2 SAFETY INSURANCE COMPANY vs. LAURA CHAU & NAKOUZI ENTERPRISES, INC. d/b/a UNION AUTOMOTIVE MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Plaintiff Safety Insurance Company (Safety) filed this action to determine its coverage obligations with respect to a motor vehicle accident which is the subject of separate litigation. The defendant Laura Chau was allegedly injured in that accident and in that separate lawsuit, seeks to recover against Nakouzi Enterprises, Inc. d/b/a Union Automotive (Nakouzi), which is Safety’s insured. The Complaint seeks a declaration both as to Safety’s duty to defend Nakouzi and its duty to indemnify. The matter is now before this Court on Safety’s Motion for Summary Judgment. This Court concludes that Safety does have a duty to defend, but that the obligation to indemnify cannot be decided at this juncture because of fact disputes as to what caused the accident. BACKGROUND The summary judgment record contains the following relevant facts. In June 2015, Chau filed a lawsuit against David Lam and Nakouzi in Plymouth Superior Court seeking to recover for injuries she suffered in an accident that occurred while she was driving Lam’s car. See Chau v. Lam et al., Civ. No. 2015-00589 (the Plymouth Action). The complaint filed in the 2 Plymouth Action alleges that, prior to the accident, Nakouzi had issued a Certificate of Inspection for the vehicle despite the fact that its tires had heavily worn treads that did not comply with the state’s safety requirements for tire tread depth. As a result of Nakouzi’s negligence, Chau mistakenly believed that Lam’s vehicle was safe to drive and that the accident occurred because the worn tire treads led her to lose control of the car and collide with oncoming traffic. The Plymouth Action is still pending. At the time of the accident, Nakouzi was the named insured on a Massachusetts garage insurance policy issued by Safety (the Policy). The Policy provided two types of liability coverage for injuries resulting from “garage operations” — specifically, a) coverage for injuries from garage operations involving the ownership, maintenance and use of covered “autos,” and b) coverage for injuries from garage operations other than the ownership, maintenance, and use of covered “autos.” The parties agree that Lam’s car was not a covered auto, so it is the second type of liability coverage that is relevant here. As to both types of liability coverage, Safety was required to pay all sums its insured was legally required to pay as damages for bodily injury or property damage provided that such injury or damage was “caused by an ‘accident’ and resulting from ‘garage operations.’” Garage Operations was defined to include “all […]