Connecticut Fire Ins. v. Horne

1949 OK 106, 207 P.2d 931, 201 Okla. 643, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 364
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 17, 1949
DocketNo. 33285
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1949 OK 106 (Connecticut Fire Ins. v. Horne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Connecticut Fire Ins. v. Horne, 1949 OK 106, 207 P.2d 931, 201 Okla. 643, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 364 (Okla. 1949).

Opinion

ARNOLD, V. C. J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the district court of Grady county wherein W. E. Horne recovered judgment against the Connecticut Fire Insurance Company, a corporation, for $604.10 as property damage sustained under a policy of insurance issued by defendant. Motion for new trial having been overruled, defendant appeals.

This action was commenced January 26, 1946, on a policy of insurance against loss by fire, hail, and other hazards. The loss is alleged to have occurred on April 9, 1944. The policy is the statutory standard form provided by Title 36, section 244, O. S. 1941, and contains the statutory clause, as follows:

“No suit or action on this policy, for the recovery of any claim, shall be sustainable in any court of law or equity until after full compliance by the insured with all the foregoing requirements, nor unless commenced within twelve months next after the fire.”

On May 25, 1946, after defendant had filed demurrer to the original petition, setting forth as grounds therefor, among other things, the bar of the statute of limitations, the plaintiff filed an amended petition. It is alleged therein that the plaintiff procured of defendant said policy on the 6th day of December, 1942, covering said residence for a term of three years, against fire, windstorm and hail; that plaintiff paid the premium thereon and that there was a mortgage clause attached in favor of the Chickasha Federal Savings & Loan Associations; that immediately after the sustaining of the alleged loss on April 9, 1944, plaintiff caused the defendant company to be notified thereof and that the defendant sent its agents and adjusters to the scene of the loss and that they inspected and saw the damage and thereby waived formal written proof of loss.

It is further alleged that defendant’s agents and adjusters orally admitted the liability of the defendant on account of such loss and damage; that plaintiff has complied with all terms and provisions of the policy except such as may have been waived by the defendant, and that the defendant is liable to plaintiff in the sum of $1,254.52, that being the amount of damage to said residence property alleged to have been sustained as a result of said hail storm.

The defendant filed its demurrer to said amended petition, upon the ground of insufficiency to state a cause of action; that same shows no proof of loss filed, nor a waiver thereof, and that same shows that the purported cause of action stated is barred by limitations. Said demurrer was overruled and exceptions allowed. Defendant filed answer, setting forth a general denial; that no proof of loss had ever been furnished by plaintiff in accordance with policy requirements; that plaintiff’s alleged cause of action is barred by the statute of limitations set forth and contained in said policy.

Plaintiff thereupon filed reply, denying generally the allegations of defendant’s answer, and alleging further a purported waiver of the proof of loss provisions of the policy; that the limitation clause of the policy had no application to plaintiff’s cause of action in that plaintiff’s loss resulted from hail and windstorm damage and was not occasioned by fire.

For reversal of the judgment defendant relies upon three propositions thus stated in its brief:

“(1) Plaintiff’s alleged cause of action is barred by the statute of limitations and by the period of limitations set forth and contained in the statutory standard policy sued upon. This includes the error of the trial court in overruling defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s amended petition, in denying defendant’s demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, in denying defendant’s motion [645]*645for a directed verdict, and in giving to the jury instructions Numbered 4, 5, and 6.
“(2) That the verdict of the jury is excessive and is not sustained by the evidence.
“(3) That the trial court erred in allowing interest from date of the filing of the action.”

We consider first the specific errors mentioned in defendant’s first proposition. Defendant relies upon the short term limitation incorporated in the standard form of fire insurance policy which limits the right to commence an action to twelve months after the date of the fire. This limitation is also relied upon by defendant in support of its allegation of error by the trial court in overruling its demurrer to plaintiff’s amended petition, in overruling its demurrer to plaintiff’s evidence, and in overruling its motion for a directed verdict at the close of all of the evidence. The standard form in which this short term limitation occurs was originally enacted by the Legislature in 1909. Article II of chapter 21, S. L. 1909, comprised six sections which appear in 36 O. S. 1941 as sections 243 to 247, inclusive. Section 3 of the 1909 Act originally embraced the language now in 36 O. S. 1941, sections 243 and 244. In the revision of the statutes in 1910, section 3 of the 1909 Act was divided and became the two sections now appearing as sections 243 and 244. The title to the 1909 Act reads:

“An Act relating to fire insurance, repealing all Acts and parts of Acts in conflict herewith, and declaring an emergency.”

The only exception in the 1909 Act to the standard form of policy therein prescribed was contained in section 4 thereof, which is now section 245 of our 1941 Statutes. This section authorized a shorter form of policy than the standard form for writing insurance for farm or dwelling house property and for tornado loss when such shorter form was approved by the Insurance Commissioner. Since the 1909 Act repealed all acts and parts of acts in-conflict therewith, it is apparent that upon the approval of that Act March 25, 1909, fire insurance companies were only authorized to write insurance in this state covering loss by fire and tornado.

In 1917, c. 176, the Legislature passed an act, the title of which reads:

“An Act providing for extending the right of fire insurance companies authorized to transact business in this State to cover other hazards of insurance and providing for the division of commissions with non-resident licensed insurance agents and brokers by policy writing agents or insurance companies licensed to transact business in the State, and permission to advertise then-business, repealing all laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith and declaring an emergency.”

Section 1 of that Act is now section 248 of our 1941 Statutes, and reads:

“Fire insurance companies licensed to transact business in this State are -permitted to cover the hazards of automobile theft, property damage, collision, explosion, sprinkler leakage, water damage, parcel post and hail.”

There is no language in the title or in the body of the 1917 Act which in any manner refers to or adopts the limitation provision in the standard form of fire insurance policy, and since this Act was the first authority which fire insurance companies had to write hail insurance policies in this state, we think the absence of any reference to or adoption of any provision of the standard form of fire insurance policy is strongly indicative that the Legislature had no intention of authorizing fire insurance companies in issuing policies covering loss by hail to make any other limitation than the general limitation apply to such policies of insurance.

We are fortified in this opinion by the form of the policy here involved.

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Bluebook (online)
1949 OK 106, 207 P.2d 931, 201 Okla. 643, 1949 Okla. LEXIS 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/connecticut-fire-ins-v-horne-okla-1949.