Collier v. Employers Nat'l Ins. Co

In Collier v. Employers Nat'l Ins. Co., 861 S.W.2d 286 (Tex. App.-- Houston 14th Dist. 1993, writ denied), the plaintiff-driver was injured when an unidentified passing car fired a shotgun into the vehicle he was driving. See id. at 288. The plaintiff sought to recover under the uninsured motorist provision of the policy. See id. The court was faced with the question of how broadly the word "use" should be defined and adopted the following three-prong test for construing the "use" requirement of uninsured motorist coverage: The accident must have arisen out of the inherent nature of the automobile, as such; The accident must have arisen within the natural territorial limits of the automobile, and the actual use, loading, or unloading must not have terminated; and The automobile must not merely contribute to the cause of the condition which produces the injury, but must itself produce the injury. Collier, 861 S.W.2d at 288-89.