Fire Damage and Coverage under CGL Form and BAP

Our insured's employee was driving a semi load of bailed corn stalks from the field to another location via a county road. As he was passing another truck coming toward him the other driver informed him that his load was on fire. The employee decided to back into a hay yard owned by our insured in order to unhook the semi tractor to save it from being destroyed. Unfortunately backing into the stack yard was not a wise choice as the fire spread to the bales in the stack yard and thus burned approx. $30,000 of hay that belonged to another party but was in the stack yard to be ground by our insured.

Both the commercial auto carrier and the general liability carrier denied coverage based upon the care, custody, or control exclusion. Do you concur with them? Thank you for your thoughts in this matter.