Christy's Auto Rentals, Inc. v. Massachusetts Homeland Insurance Company

Excerpt

Christy's Auto Rentals, Inc. (Christy's) appealed to the Supreme Court seeking review of a January 25, 2016 judgment of the Providence County Superior Court granting the motion for summary judgment of Massachusetts Homeland Insurance Company (Homeland) in this declaratory judgment action. On November 7, 2018, the Court heard oral argument in the case. Christy's contended before the Court that the hearing justice erred in granting Homeland's motion for summary judgment because he erroneously found that: (1) Homeland did not waive Christy's lack of standing by asserting it first in its motion for summary judgment (2) Christy's lacked standing to pursue the declaratory judgment action (3) Homeland's insurance policy with its insured did not cover the accident and (4) coverage was not mandated by G.L. 1956 § 27-7-6. The Supreme Court held that Homeland properly raised the standing issue before the trial justice in its motion for summary judgment that Christy's indeed lacked standing to pursue a declaratory judgment regarding a contract to which it was not a party and that the hearing justice's determination of the insurance policy's coverage of the accident at issue and the applicability of the statute constituted nonbinding dicta. Accordingly, the Supreme Court affirmed the January 25, 2016 judgment of the Superior Court.