The American Oil Company v. Hardware Mutual Casualty Company

ON PETITION FOR REHEARING

PER CURIAM.

American Oil Company’s extensive petition for rehearing overlooks an important matter. The question is not simply whether the accident occurred, time-wise, while the loading was in progress, but whether there was an obligation of an insured in addition to the named insured for which and for whom the insurer had undertaken responsibility. This must be determined both as to the identity of the insured and in terms of the measure of the obligation. Cf. Zavota v. Ocean Accident Co., 408 F.2d 940, 1 Cir., 4/4/69. An insured is defined as one who is using the automobile, and the measure of the obligation, which Cinq-Mars described in terms of causation, is whether the liability arose out of the loading or unloading thereof. In Cinq-Mars the crane operator was found to be acting under the direction of Perry, the named insured. The question whether American Oil, the putative insured here, was acting in connection with the condition of its premises “with the [named] insured’s permission and at his direction,” Cinq-Mars v. Travelers Ins. Co., 1966, 100 R.I. 603, 607, 218 A.2d 467, 470, would be a considerable step beyond Cinq-Mars. We will not say that as matter of law the district court was obliged to find what the Rhode Island court described as a causal relationship to the loading of the truck. The petition for rehearing is denied.