## Facts

- Frank Camara converted a 1970 Volkswagen into a dune buggy.
- During a deer-hunting trip, Cheryl DeBoer rode as Camara’s passenger when the dune buggy left a fire protection road on a steep hillside and crashed, injuring her.
- DeBoer recovered the $100,000 limits under Camara’s automobile liability policy.
- DeBoer sought additional recovery under Camara’s homeowner’s policy by alleging Camara negligently designed, constructed, and assembled the dune buggy, causing it to overturn.
- The homeowner’s policy provided personal liability coverage but excluded bodily injury “arising out of the ownership, maintenance, operation, or use” of a motor vehicle.
- The coverage dispute was submitted on an agreed record as a question of law in a declaratory relief action filed by the insurer.

## Issues

1. Whether a passenger’s bodily injury sustained during operation of the insured’s dune buggy is excluded by a homeowner’s policy’s motor-vehicle exclusion when the claimant pleads negligent design, construction, and assembly of the vehicle as an additional theory of liability.
2. Whether negligent vehicle design and construction constitutes an independent, non-vehicle-related cause sufficient to avoid an “arising out of … operation or use” exclusion.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal affirmed judgment for the insurer declaring no coverage under the homeowner’s policy.
- The court held DeBoer’s injury “arose out of” the operation or use of a motor vehicle within the meaning of the exclusion.
- Any alleged negligent design, construction, or assembly of the dune buggy was not an independent non-auto cause; it was dependent on and inseparable from the vehicle’s operation and use.

## Legal Principles

- “Arising out of the ownership, maintenance, operation, or use” of a motor vehicle is interpreted broadly; an antecedent negligent act does not avoid the exclusion when liability depends on vehicle operation or use at the time of injury.
- Concurrent-cause homeowner’s coverage applies only when the non-auto cause is truly independent of the vehicle-related cause (typically involving a separate instrumentality or non-vehicle conduct).
- Negligent design, construction, assembly, or modification of the insured’s own vehicle is vehicle-related for purposes of a homeowner’s motor-vehicle exclusion when the injury occurs during the vehicle’s operation or use.

## Conclusion

Because the alleged design and construction negligence was part of the vehicle itself and any resulting liability depended on the dune buggy’s operation at the time of the accident, the homeowner’s policy motor-vehicle exclusion applied and State Farm owed no indemnity under that policy.


State Farm Fire & Cas. Co. v. Camara, 63 Cal. App. 3d 48, 133 Cal. Rptr. 600 (Ct. App. 1976)