“ownership, maintenance or use”

Peter Pan Bus Lines, Inc. v Hanover Ins. Co., 2018 NY Slip Op 00467 [1st 2018]

The insurance policy issued by defendant to Peter Pan provides coverage for damages owed because of, inter alia, " bodily injury' … caused by an accident' and resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of a covered auto.'" Regardless of whether the plaintiff in the underlying action, having arrived at her destination on a Peter Pan bus and seen the driver unloading the passengers' luggage, tripped over a suitcase while approaching her own suitcase or tripped on the curb while looking for her suitcase, her accident resulted from Peter Pan's use of the bus, a covered auto, and defendant is obligated to defend and indemnify Peter Pan in the underlying action (see BP A.C. Corp. v One Beacon Ins. Group, 8 NY3d 708, 714 [2007]; Axton Cross Co. v Lumbermens Mut. Cas. Co., 176 AD2d 482 [1st Dept 1991], lv dismissed 79 NY2d 822 [1991]; Cosmopolitan Mut. Ins. Co. v Baltimore & Ohio R.R. Co., 18 AD2d 460 [1st Dept 1963]).