Celina Mutual Insurance Co. v. Harbor Insurance Agency, LLC

332 S.W.3d 107, 2010 Ky. App. LEXIS 129, 2010 WL 2788164
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJuly 16, 2010
Docket2009-CA-000790-MR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 332 S.W.3d 107 (Celina Mutual Insurance Co. v. Harbor Insurance Agency, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Celina Mutual Insurance Co. v. Harbor Insurance Agency, LLC, 332 S.W.3d 107, 2010 Ky. App. LEXIS 129, 2010 WL 2788164 (Ky. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinions

OPINION

CLAYTON, Judge:

The Appellant, Celina Mutual Insurance Company, appeals from two orders of the Trigg Circuit Court granting summary judgment in favor of Harbor Insurance Agency and William Kearney (hereinafter the “Appellees”). In the first summary judgment order, the trial court ruled that Appellant’s negligence action required expert testimony to establish the professional duties of an insurance agent. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Appellees on Appellant’s negligence claims given that all discovery had been completed, that the time had expired for all expert and trial witness disclosures, and that Appellant did not have an expert witness.

In the second summary judgment order, the trial court ruled that Appellant’s indemnity claims must fail as a matter of law and granted summary judgment in favor of Appellees. In this second summary judgment order, the trial court also dismissed Appellant’s complaint, finding that it had disposed of all of Appellant’s claims. Appellant argues that the trial court wrongfully granted summary judgment in both orders; Appellees disagree. After a thorough review of the record, the parties’ arguments, and the applicable law, we find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that an expert witness was necessary to establish an insurance agent’s professional duty, or in its determination that Appellant’s indemnity claims must fail as a matter of law, or in dismissing Appellant’s complaint because all of Appellant’s claims had been addressed. Thus, we affirm the trial court.

The facts that gave rise to this appeal are briefly summarized. Todd Latham (“the insured”) purchased a farm security policy of insurance from Harbor Insurance Agency through Celina Mutual Insurance Company. The insurance application asked the applicant to list all losses of the potential insured in the last five years. The insured disclosed to Harbor’s agent Bill Kearney that he had a prior fire loss but maintained that the fire was not attributed to him and would not show up in his loss history. At this juncture, the parties disagree as to what happened next. Kear-ney asserts that he had a conversation with Appellant’s employees about the prior fire loss and that Appellant investigated the insured’s claims history at Kearney’s request. Regardless, the application for insurance listed “none” in regard to the prior loss question. Approximately a month after the issuance of the policy, the insured’s home and contents were destroyed in a fire and Appellant paid pursuant to the policy. Appellant contends that if Kearney had truthfully answered the application reflecting the prior fire loss of the insured, they would not have issued the policy. In light of these facts, the [109]*109Appellees brought forth their summary judgment motion.

The trial court’s first summary judgment order of March 25, 2009, entered of record on March 30, 2009, concerned the negligence claims of Appellant. The trial court first set out what Appellant alleged in its complaint: Count I on negligence, errors, and omissions, wherein Appellant alleged that Appellees “held themselves out as experts in the field of insurance coverage and by reason of their position in the insurance industry, said Defendants were in a superior position to determine whether or not to recommend that Plaintiff Celina [now Appellant] provide insurance coverage to [the insured].”

The complaint further alleged that the Appellees “have a duty to exercise due care in their professional conduct.” The trial court then noted that most professional negligence claims require expert testimony, with the common exception being where the experience or common knowledge of laymen is extensive enough to recognize or to infer negligence from the facts. Next, the trial court set out the crux of the order:

The cases relied upon by Plaintiff do deal with insurance application irregularities, but they involve whether the company owes coverage to the insured based upon what the agent did or did not do in the application process. Here, we are dealing with what duties the insurance professional (agent) owed to the insurance company and that is a step removed from any duties owed to the insured. While jurors, as in Mullins, [Mullins v. Commonwealth Life Insurance Co., 839 S.W.2d 245 (Ky.1992) ], as insurance customers, might have some idea of an agent’s duty to his customers in an automobile policy, it is difficult to see how the average person would have any idea of what duty or duties an agent owed to the company which that agent represented. Likewise, the average person would have no idea whether that duty was breached by a particular agent.
Therefore, based upon the facts of this case, expert testimony would be necessary to establish the duty from the agent to the company and whether such duty was breached given the facts of this case. While there may be a fact question about what conversations took place between the agent and company representatives, that fact is not material without expert proof on the standard of care due by insurance professionals under the circumstances here.

Trial court order of March 25, 2009. Hence, the trial court determined that Ap-pellees were entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the negligence claims set out in the complaint.

The trial court’s second summary judgment order of March 26, 2009, entered of record on March 30, 2009, concerned the indemnity claims of Appellant. The trial court'first set out what Appellant alleged in its complaint: Count II, breach of contract and indemnification, wherein Appellant alleged that “Defendants are under an express and/or implied contractual duty to indemnify and hold harmless Plaintiff Celina for Defendants’ negligent actions and/or omissions.”

In paragraphs 25 and 26 of the complaint, Appellant referred to “contractual duty,” “breach of contract,” and “refusal to indemnify,” which the trial court interpreted as Appellant’s pursuing a claim for indemnity that was either expressed or implied in the contract. The trial court noted that under Kentucky law, parties may enter into an indemnification agreement as a part of a contract; however, there was no express provision for indemnification in the agency agreement between the parties. Thus, the trial court [110]*110found that Appellant’s express indemnification claim must fail as a matter of law. Moreover, contained within the agency agreement was a provision that the terms of the agency agreement were “the entire Agreement between the parties” and that “[n]o other warranties or representations, except those specifically set out herein, exist between the parties[.]” The trial court concluded that the language of the contract precluded an implied obligation of indemnification; thus, Appellant’s claim for an implied obligation of indemnification must fail as a matter of law.

The trial court then turned its attention to Appellant’s common law indemnification claims and stated:

[The trial court] does not necessarily believe that Plaintiffs common law indemnity argument fits the general tort indemnification analysis because the Plaintiffs liability to its insured arises from the insurance contract and not through the tortuous conduct of Defendants.

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Celina Mutual Insurance Co. v. Harbor Insurance Agency, LLC
332 S.W.3d 107 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
332 S.W.3d 107, 2010 Ky. App. LEXIS 129, 2010 WL 2788164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/celina-mutual-insurance-co-v-harbor-insurance-agency-llc-kyctapp-2010.