Braley v. American Home Assur. Co.

354 So. 2d 904
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJanuary 25, 1978
Docket76-2061
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 354 So. 2d 904 (Braley v. American Home Assur. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Braley v. American Home Assur. Co., 354 So. 2d 904 (Fla. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

354 So.2d 904 (1978)

John BRALEY, Appellant,
v.
AMERICAN HOME ASSURANCE COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 76-2061.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

January 25, 1978.
Rehearing Denied February 22, 1978.

W. Eric Venable, Tampa, for appellant.

James C. Hadaway of Fowler, White, Gillen, Boggs, Villareal & Banker, St. Petersburg, for appellee.

HOBSON, Judge.

Braley, plaintiff below, appeals the entry of summary judgment in favor of American Home Assurance Company (Home) on Braley's claim for disability insurance benefits under a policy issued to Braley's employer, Campbell Soup Company, for the benefit of employees such as Braley. Braley contends that the trial court erred in determining, as a matter of law, that an "accident" was not the proper cause of Braley's disability. We agree and reverse the order granting summary judgment and final summary judgment entered thereon.

Read in a light most favorable to the party opposing summary judgment, the record discloses the following facts. John Braley was a long-time employee of Campbell Soup Company. Braley's duties required his construction of shelf and floor displays of canned food products. This included lifting forty-pound cases and long periods of driving and sitting. In May of 1953, Braley injured his back while moving a display in a grocery store. In January of 1955, Braley underwent surgery for a ruptured spinal disc. After that surgery, Braley was able to return to full-time work for Campbell Soup without any significant back problems.

*905 In September 1969, Braley was constructing a display. As he twisted slightly to place a case on a handtruck, he heard a "pop" and immediately felt a sharp pain in his back and down his hips and legs. Braley's physicians diagnosed and treated him for a rupture of the same disc. The treating and examining physicians who were deposed testified that Braley could not perform his previous duties for Campbell Soup Company. As a practical matter, Braley has not been able to work since this injury.

The policy here involved insured Braley "for loss resulting from injury." Injury is therein defined as "bodily injury caused by accident occurring while this policy is in force as to the Insured Person and resulting directly and independently of all other causes in loss covered by this policy."

Upon motion, the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of insurer based on its ruling that Braley did not sustain a loss resulting from an "injury" as that term is defined in the policy. This ruling is founded upon two grounds. Firstly, Braley's disability was not caused by an "accident." Secondly, Braley's disability did not result "directly and independently of all other causes."

We consider first whether Braley's disability was caused by an "accident." Braley argues, in effect, that this term should be interpreted so as to include unexpected results of a known cause. Home, however, claims that the term "accident" should be given its literal meaning so as to be limited to only unexpected causes of an injury, as where some fortuitous mishap acts upon the body of the insured to cause disability.

We note at the outset that Home has failed to avail itself of the opportunity to define, qualify, or narrow the term "accident" in its policy. The courts have repeatedly held that the term "accident," as all other terms in an insurance policy not defined in the policy, should be given its everyday "man-on-the-street" meaning. In an effort to find a statement of such a meaning, we turn to the Webster's New International Dictionary, 2d Ed. (G. & C. Merriam Co. 1953) which defines "accident" as:

"An event which takes place without one's foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event."

While this definition well furnishes the concept of unexpectedness,[1] its use of "event" furnishes no insight on the question whether the everyday man-on-the-street considers an accident to be a result as well as a cause. Turning, then, to that authority's definition of "event" we find it defined as:

"The consequence of anything; the issue; conclusion; result."

We find, then, that the everyday man-on-the-street definition of "accident" includes an unexpected result. Lest this seem only so much song and dance, we point out that this comports with judicial definitions and applications of the word "accident."

Workmen's Compensation cases have long interpreted the term "accident" to include unusual or unexpected results. In Duff Hotel Company v. Ficara, 150 Fla. 442, 7 So.2d 790 (1942), our supreme court rejected the contention that "accident" should be "literally" construed to apply only where an external force or circumstance unexpectedly causes injury to the victim. The court held that the term "accident" encompasses the unusual result of a known cause without the showing of any fortuitous mishap, stumble, or fall. In that case, a hernia received by ordinary lifting in the usual manner, was an injury caused by "accident."

In Gray v. Employers Mut. Liability Ins. Co., 64 So.2d 650 (Fla. 1952), where a worker injured her arm from lifting a heavy object, our supreme court once again rejected the definition of "accident" requiring a fortuitous mishap. The court considered dictionary definitions and found that an unexpected result of an ordinary circumstance was commonly understood as an "accident." *906 Thus a back injury suffered when attempting to pick up and load a box certainly was, in common parlance, an "accident." Gray established the "unusual result" test as a criterion for the existence of an accident. Spivey v. Battaglia Fruit Company, 138 So.2d 308, 310 (Fla. 1962). After the Gray decision, it became:

"... settled beyond question in this state that an internal failure, such as a strained muscle, ruptured disc, `snapped' knee-cap, and the like, brought about by exertion in the performance of the regular or usual duties of the employment, may be found to be an injury `by accident,' without the necessity of showing that such injury was preceded by some incident, such as a slip, fall or blow." (Victor Wine & Liquor, Inc. v. Beasley, 141 So.2d 581 [Fla. 1962] at p. 588, Opinion on rehearing construing Workmen's Compensation law.)

These results are consistent with the present Workmen's Compensation statutory definition: "`Accident' means only an unexpected or unusual event or result, happening suddenly." Section 440.02, Florida Statutes (1975).

This definition of "accident" to include the unexpected results of a known cause is not limited to dictionaries and Workmen's Compensation law. In Christ v. Progressive Fire Insurance Company, 101 So.2d 821 (Fla. 2d DCA 1958), this court construed a contractor's liability insurance policy providing coverage for damage "caused by accident." This court recited an often-quoted passage from Midland Construction Co. v. United States Casualty Co., 214 F.2d 665 (10th Cir.1954) to define "accident" as including an unexpected result from a known cause as well as an event from an unexpected cause. In the Florida case, however, neither the cause nor the result could be said to have been unexpected. Similarly, in Shelby Mutual Ins. Co. v. Ferber Sheet Metal Works, 156 So.2d 748 (Fla.

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354 So. 2d 904, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/braley-v-american-home-assur-co-fladistctapp-1978.