Wading into an issue of first impression, a court of common pleas judge has ruled that a woman's car insurance coverage should extend to her son's girlfriend, even though the woman never gave her son's girlfriend permission to drive the vehicle.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Mark I. Bernstein recently made the ruling in Nationwide Insurance v. Geico Insurance, and issued an opinion Aug. 11 asking the state Superior Court to find that woman was covered under the policy.

Bernstein said the question of whether the girlfriend, who had been involved in a collision while driving her boyfriend's car, had implied permission to use the car was an issue of first impression. He looked to case law from other courts, as well as a legal treatise to determine that, because the son had permission to use the vehicle, the son's girlfriend had implied permission.