Nationwide Mutual Ins. v. Shimon
Annotate this CaseSeventeen-year-old driver Simone Lionudakis got into a motor vehicle accident, injuring defendants-appellants Aweia and Flora Shimon. Simone was driving a GMC pickup truck owned by and registered to her father Phillip Lionudakis, but he had excluded Simone from his insurance policy to save money, even though Simone was the only one who ever drove the GMC. Phillip’s ex-wife (Simone’s mother) Kristen Doornenbal, had insurance through plaintiff Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company for her own and her current husband’s vehicles, but not the GMC. The Doornenbals’s Nationwide policy provided coverage for a household family member’s use of a “non-owned” vehicle, but not if the non-owned auto was “furnished or available” for her “regular use.” The trial court entered declaratory judgment in favor of plaintiff Nationwide against the Shimons as defendants, finding the GMC was furnished or available for Simone’s regular use and therefore coverage was excluded. The Shimons appealed, arguing the vehicle was not available for Simone’s use at the time and place of the accident, because her parents did not want her driving that far from home and had told her not to drive at all for a week or two as punishment for bad grades. Finding no reversible error, the Court of Appeal affirmed.
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