## Facts

- Allstate issued June Connor an automobile liability policy covering her pickup truck for bodily injury arising out of the “ownership, maintenance, or use” of the insured vehicle.
- Connor’s son drove the pickup to a store with his dog riding in the truck bed under a camper top; William Sullivan rode as a passenger.
- After arriving, the men exited the parked truck while the dog remained in the bed near an open camper-top window.
- As Sullivan walked past the open window, the dog bit him, causing serious injury.
- Sullivan made a claim against Connor; Connor tendered the claim to her homeowner’s insurer, American States.
- American States settled the claim, obtained an assignment of Connor’s rights against Allstate, and sued Allstate for reimbursement, asserting the loss was covered under the auto policy.
- The trial court entered judgment for Allstate, concluding the injury did not arise out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of the pickup; American States appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a dog bite inflicted by a dog located in the bed of a parked pickup truck, as the injured person walked past the truck, “arose out of the ownership, maintenance, or use” of the pickup so as to trigger automobile liability coverage.

## Decision

- The District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District, affirmed judgment for Allstate.
- The court held the dog-bite injury did not arise out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of the pickup truck within the meaning of the auto policy.
- The court concluded the truck merely provided the location for the dog’s attack and did not have the required causal connection to the injury.

## Legal Principles

- “Arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use” of a motor vehicle requires a causal connection between the vehicle’s use and the injury, though not strict tort proximate cause.
- Automobile coverage is not triggered when the vehicle is only the situs of the injury; the vehicle’s use as a vehicle must contribute to the injury in more than an incidental way.
- Injury caused by an independent instrumentality located on a vehicle (here, a dog) is not attributable to vehicle use when the vehicle’s role is merely coincidental to the harm.

## Conclusion

Because the dog’s independent act caused the injury and the pickup truck only furnished the setting for the bite, the loss did not arise out of the truck’s ownership, maintenance, or use, and Allstate had no duty to provide automobile liability coverage or reimburse the homeowner’s insurer’s settlement payment.


Am. States Ins. Co. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 484 So. 2d 1363 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 5th Dist. 1986)