Worcester Mutual Insurance v. Marnell

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that co-insured parents not barred from coverage under homeowner’s liability policy when damages resulting from child’s automobile accident were excluded from the policy
• holding that there was coverage even though the court's interpretation of the policy made the word \any” in the auto exclusion clause superfluous; stating that interpreting \any” to mean otherwise would “render the entire severability of insurance clause meaningless”
• finding that the severability clause required the exclusion to be read solely against the each insured individually
• recognizing “the long-standing rule of construction that the favored interpretation of an insurance policy is one which ‘best effectuates the main manifested design of the parties’”
• reading of a contract “which gives a reasonable meaning to all [its] provisions ... is to be preferred to one which leaves a part useless or inexplicable”[quotation and citation omitted]
• severability clause provides that the policy \applies separately to each insured\ and \requires that each insured be treated as having a separate insurance policy.\

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Cited by

96 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

• Chacon v. American Family Mutual Insurance Company
  Supreme Court of Colorado· 1990-03-05· cited 198×
• Worcester Insurance v. Fells Acres Day School, Inc.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1990-08-22· cited 161×
• Marquis v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.
  Supreme Court of Kansas· 1998-06-05· cited 124×
• Minkler v. Safeco Insurance Co. of America
  California Supreme Court· 2010-06-17· cited 118×
• Brazas Sporting Arms, Inc. v. American Empire Surplus Lines Insurance
  First Circuit· 2000-07-17· cited 114×
• Safeco Insurance of America v. Robert S.
  California Supreme Court· 2001-08-20· cited 105×
• Litz v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.
  Court of Appeals of Maryland· 1997-06-27· cited 96×
• Brumley v. Lee
  Supreme Court of Kansas· 1998-07-17· cited 88×
• Premier Ins. Co. v. Adams
  District Court of Appeal of Florida· 1994-01-28· cited 77×
• BP America, Inc. v. State Auto Property & Casualty Insurance Co.
  Supreme Court of Oklahoma· 2005-09-20· cited 74×
• Northwest G.F. Mutual Insurance Co. v. Norgard
  North Dakota Supreme Court· 1994-06-15· cited 69×
• Safeco Insurance Co. of America v. White
  Ohio Supreme Court· 2009-08-04· cited 49×
• General Industries, Inc. v. Shea (In Re General Industries, Inc.)
  D. Massachusetts· 1987-10-30· cited 43×
• Villa v. Short
  Supreme Court of New Jersey· 2008-06-05· cited 42×
• Michael Carbone, Inc. v. General Accident Insurance
  E.D. Pennsylvania· 1996-08-09· cited 42×
• Metropolitan Property & Casualty Insurance v. Fitchburg Mutual Insurance
  Massachusetts Appeals Court· 2003-08-18· cited 42×
• Johnson v. Allstate Insurance Co.
  Supreme Judicial Court of Maine· 1997-01-06· cited 38×
• California Casualty Insurance v. Northland Insurance
  California Court of Appeal· 1996-08-30· cited 38×
• American Family Mutual Insurance v. Copeland-Williams
  Missouri Court of Appeals· 1997-02-11· cited 37×
• American Family Mutual Insurance v. White
  Court of Appeals of Arizona· 2003-03-20· cited 35×

Cites

5 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

• Barnstable County Mutual Fire Insurance v. Lally
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1978-03-09· cited 107×
• Sherman v. EMPLOYERS'LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORP. LTD.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1961-12-18· cited 83×
• Desrosiers v. Royal Insurance Co. of America
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1984-09-17· cited 42×
• Joseph E. Bennett Co. Inc. v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co.
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1962-04-05· cited 26×
• King v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America
  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court· 1971-03-11· cited 25×