Please advise as to coverage.

Tennessee Subscriber

A

The loss as described is covered under the CP 00 10 policy with the special causes of loss form attached. As we understand the loss, the insured had a box trailer stolen from on premises. The trailer had been modified for use at exhibitions, but was not on exhibit at the time of the theft, and, in fact, had not left the premises in more than a year, instead being used as additional on premises storage. The trailer was not licensed, although it probably should have been. The insurance company is relying on CP 00 10 exclusions O. (1) and (2)—vehicles or self-propelled machines that are licensed for use on public roads or are operated principally away from the described premises—to deny the claim.

As stated above, the vehicles exclusion applies to vehicles that are licensed for road use and are operated principally away from the described premises. Neither of these exclusionary hurdles to coverage have been cleared—the trailer is not licensed for road use and its use has been primarily as a storage facility on the premises, clearly not qualifying it as being operated principally away from the described premises.

As to the fact that the trailer should have been licensed, that is not relevant. The policy excludes vehicles that are licensed for use, not that are required to be licensed for road use. The homeowners policy offers an analogy; it excludes vehicles which are required to be licensed for road use. Therefore, if the drafters of the commercial property program had wanted to, they could have been more specific about the requirement of licensing. Instead, the wording chosen applies only to vehicles that are licensed for public road use.