Bennett v. Amalgamated Cas. Ins. Co

WASHINGTON, Circuit Judge,

I concur in the result, and with most of what is said by the court with regard to the first and principal ground of decision. I would add one further comment. A sound and workable system of taxicab insurance requires that the extent as well as the existence of such insurance be ascertainable by interested persons with a minimum of delay and uncertainty. The administrative measures revealed by the record of this case were not such as would achieve that end. In fact, those measures do not appear to have been either business-like or aptly designed to protect the public interest. As to the secondary and concluding ground of decision, I do not think we reach the issue there discussed. If we did reach it, I would have considerable doubt as to the court’s conclusion that “the actual use” of the taxicab was without “the permission of *134the named insured,” within the meaning of those words as used in the omnibus clause. See Behaney v. Travelers Ins. Co., 3 Cir., 1941, 121 F.2d 838; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Collins, 5 Cir., 1938, 96 F.2d 83, certiorari denied 1938, 305 U.S. 627, 59 S.Ct. 89, 83 L.Ed. 401; Vezolles v. Home Indemnity Co., D.C.W.D.Ky.1941, 38 F.Supp. 455, affirmed 6 Cir., 1942, 128 F.2d 257; Stovall v. New York Indemnity Co., 1928, 157 Tenn. 301, 8 S.W.2d 473, 72 A.L.R. 1368; Dickinson v. Maryland Casualty Co., 1924, 101 Conn. 369, 125 A. 866, 41 A.L.R. 500.