Coverage for Auto Incident with Parked Car Under Homeowner's and Auto Policy

Our insured had a son that did not live at home. The son brought his uninsured auto to our insured's home to work on it. The car slipped off of the son's car jack while in our insured's garage and the son was killed. We filed a claim under our insured's ISO form homeowner's policy for a liability claim by the son's estate. I feel that there is coverage under the homeowner's policy. I feel that there would also be liability coverage for our insured under his own auto policy (which we do not write) for a liability claim if they have a standard ISO policy form. Do you agree that there is coverage under both the ISO homeowners and the ISO auto policies?

Pennsylvania Subscriber

Let's start with the homeowner's policy. The son who was not a resident relative was using the insured's property with permission. So far so good. The exclusions for medical payments however exclude coverage if a vehicle is registered for use on public roads; was the son's vehicle registered? Vehicles can be registered but uninsured at the same time although it's not supposed to happen. If the vehicle was registered there is no coverage. If this and the other A.1. exclusions do not apply (not registered but required to be to be used at the place of the occurrence, operated/practicing for a race/competition, rented to others, used to carry persons/property for a fee, used for business purposes) then the vehicle is further excluded unless it is in dead storage on the insured property, used to service the premises or assist the handicapped. From what you've said the son was working on repairing the vehicle so it doesn't sound like it was in dead storage so there is no coverage due to the exclusions.

As for the auto policy, the son is not a family member by definition since he did not reside in the household. The son was not using the insured's auto, he was using his own. While we cannot make a determination of legal liability, none of the insured's vehicles listed on the auto policy were involved in the accident, so there would be no coverage under the auto policy. It would be like a runaway truck hitting the pizza delivery person on the insured's property; it's a vehicle the insured doesn't own or use, so the auto policy would not provide coverage to the pizza delivery person.

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