Reliance Insurance v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co.

What we have here is a controversy between insurance companies as to the meaning of two standard clauses in comprehensive automobile liability insurance policies: (1) the tractor-trailer exclusion and (2) the severability of interests clause.

Not surprisingly, the parties have, in their briefs and arguments, engaged in lusty word chopping, an exercise to which the language of the policies lends itself handsomely. We think that diagnosing the commercial purpose of the disputed provisions offers a more hopeful approach to unraveling the problem. To that end we describe the business setting.

*219Aetna…