TIMOTHY DUANE HARRELL, BY HIS NEXT FRIEND HERMAN B. HARRELL, AND HERMAN B. HARRELL, INDIVIDUALLY, APPELLANTS,
v.
HORACE SELLARS, BARBARA JEAN MESSER, CAPITAL CITY FIRST NATIONAL BANK, J.D. HARRIS, SAFECO INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA, ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY AND STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, APPELLEES
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The court held that the beneficial owner of the vehicle was properly found to be Sellars, and the vehicle was excluded from Sellars' insurance policy.
Sellars was found to be the beneficial owner of a Pinto involved in an accident, despite legal title being held elsewhere. Sellars had control over th…
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MILLS, Judge.
. Harrell appeals and Sellars cross-appeals a judgment following a nonjury trial. The trial court found that Sellars was the beneficial owner of a 1973 Pinto and entered judgment in favor of the defendants, Capital City First National Bank, its insurer, and Safeco. We affirm.
This litigation arose from an accident involving the Pinto driven by Barbara Jean Messer, the step-daughter of Sellars. The car had been sold by Sellars to Harris with financing by the Bank. Sellars co-signed Harris’s note. When Harris defaulted, the Bank looked to Sellars. The car was repossessed at Sellars’ instigation.
There is ample evidence that Sellars had control over the vehicle. He maintained and stored it. He had it available for his regular use. He was making the payments on it. Beneficial ownership was properly found in Sellars although legal title remained in Harris and the Bank held the certificate of title and Harris’s power of attorney.
These facts do not require a finding of any bailment of the auto to the Bank by either Harris or Sellars.
Because the auto was available for Sellars’ regular use, in fact beneficially owned by Sellars, it clearly was excluded under Sellars’ insurance policy with Safeco. Alternatively, Messer, Sellars’ step-daughter, was clearly resident of her mother’s separate household and, therefore, her accidents are not covered under the policy.
AFFIRMED.
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., C.J., and McCORD, J., concur.
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Iva Wummer v. Lowary, 441 So. 2d 1151 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983)…ar. Lowary was injured while a passenger in the Camaro. Suit was filed against Wummer as the owner of the vehicle. Beneficial ownership carries with it liability for damages which arise from an automobile’s negligent operation. Harrell v. Sellars, 424 So. 2d 881 (Fla. 1st DCA [*1152] 1983); Hicks v. Land, 117 So. 2d 11 (Fla. 1st DCA 1960); and, Cox Motor Co. v. Faber, 113 So. 2d 771 (Fla. 1st DCA 1959). Wum-mer’s employee had sole possession of the auto. Wummer saw it for the first time after the accident o…
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Johnson v. AETNA Life & Cas. Co., 472 So. 2d 859 (Fla. 3d DCA 1985)…lete authority to control its use. This beneficial ownership exposed her to liability for the negligent operation of the automobile. Wummer v. Lowary, 441 So. 2d 1151 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983), review denied, 451 So. 2d 849 (Fla.1984); Harrell v. Sellars, 424 So. 2d 881 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982). Consequently, it was Joyce, and not Gerald, who had an insurable interest in the risk arising from use of the Toyota.…