Opinion
40564.
DECIDED FEBRUARY 13, 1964.
Action on insurance policy. Worth Superior Court. Before Judge Gray.
Ford Houston, P. B. Ford, for plaintiff in error.
Marion L. Bridges, contra.
Under the facts alleged in the petition the trial court did not err in sustaining the general demurrer to the petition.
DECIDED FEBRUARY 13, 1964.
Plaintiff Whiddon filed suit against Cotton States Mutual Insurance Company to recover medical expenses incurred as a result of injuries to his minor daughter. The petition alleged that the daughter was injured when she was struck by a dangling wire while riding upon "a certain Harley-Davidson motorcycle, same being a two wheeled self-propelling, automotive vehicle, being an automobile, operated and propelled by a gasoline motor." Plaintiff claimed coverage under provisions of a policy issued to him by the defendant company which provided payment for all necessary medical expenses incurred by the named insured or relative who sustained bodily injury caused by accident "while occupying or through being struck by an automobile."
To the petition, defendant filed general and special demurrers. The plaintiff assigns error upon the ruling of the trial court sustaining the general demurrers and dismissing the petition.
This case is controlled by the decision of the Supreme Court of Georgia in Bullard v. Life c. Ins. Co., 178 Ga. 673, 674 ( 173 S.E. 855), in which Justice Gilbert said: "In arriving at the true interpretation of a contract, words usually bear their `usual and common signification.' In common parlance, or according to usual signification of the word, an `automobile' is not a `motorcycle.' Both are `motor-driven' vehicles, but not all `motor-driven' vehicles are `automobiles' nor are all `motorcycles.' Had it been the intention of the parties that the insurance should cover accidents in riding a motorcycle, the policy would properly have used the words `motor-driven vehicles.'"
Any language used by this court in Carter v. State, 12 Ga. App. 430 ( 78 S.E. 205) and Bonds v. State, 16 Ga. App. 401 ( 85 S.E. 629), relied upon by plaintiff in error, in conflict with the above must yield to the clear cut subsequent ruling of the Supreme Court in Bullard, 178 Ga. 673, supra.
The trial court did not err in sustaining the general demurrer to the petition.
Judgment affirmed. Bell, P. J., and Eberhardt, J., concur.