Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins. v. Board of Ed.

1948 OK 223, 204 P.2d 982, 201 Okla. 250, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 549
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 19, 1948
DocketNo. 33182
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 1948 OK 223 (Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins. v. Board of Ed.) 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
Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins. v. Board of Ed., 1948 OK 223, 204 P.2d 982, 201 Okla. 250, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 549 (Okla. 1948).

Opinion

GIBSON, J.

Defendants in error, as plaintiffs, instituted this action against plaintiff in error, as defendant, to recover upon an insurance policy issued by the latter for loss sustained by reason of damage to a building alleged to have been caused by windstorm. The issue was tried to a jury which rendered a verdict for the plaintiffs in the sum of $2,700. The court awarded plaintiffs judgment for that amount with interest thereon for a period antedating the verdict. Defendant appeals and, as grounds for reversal, contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict, that the court erred in the admission of expert testimony on the cause of the damage and in the allowance of interest. The parties will be referred to herein as they appeared in the trial court.

The building involved was a one-story frame structure 50' x 80', with gable roof of corrugated iron, erected for and used as a gymnasium upon school grounds. The amount of the policy was $3,000, of which $2,700 covered the building and $300 the contents. The policy covered damáge from fire and “windstorms, cyclones and / or tornadoes.”

The damage occurred about 1:30 p.m. on February 27, 1945, when the roof of the building collapsed with the falling of the south end thereof to the floor within the walls. On that day the weather was severe and consequently the school was dismissed at the noon hour. During the previous night and in the morning of that day a snow had fallen variously estimated at from less than five to as much as seven or eight inches. At the time of collapse of the roof it was not snowing, but a wind was blowing termed by witnesses as a “high wind” and “strong wind.” There is no evidence of other buildings being injured, but on the premises of another adjoining the school ground a plum tree was blown down. The evidence is to the contrary that there was any defect in the plan of construction or in the material used in the building. Builders, whose qualifications to testify as experts are not questioned though their testimony is objected to on other grounds, testified that in their opinion the cause of the collapse was the force of the wind.

Under the first ground urged for reversal there is quoted the following from 29 Am. Jur. 792, as a statement of the law governing the construction of the policy:

“In the case of a policy against damage by tornado, hurricane, or windstorm, the words ‘tornado’ and ‘hurricane’ are synonymous and mean a violent storm distinguished by the ve[252]*252hemence of the wind and its sudden changes. The word ‘windstorm’ partially takes its meaning from ‘tornado’ and ‘hurricane,’ and indicates wind of unusual violence. A ‘windstorm’ need not have either the cyclonic or the whirling features which usually accompany tornadoes or cyclones, but it must assume the aspect of a storm, that is, an outburst of tumultuous force.”

And it is urged that the evidence fails to reflect that the wind was of “tumultuous” character, and as supporting that contention there are cited Sabatier Bros. v. Scottish Union & National Ins. Co. (La. App.) 152 So. 85; Mulgrew Co. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., 187 Iowa, 1292, 175 N. W. 50, 51; Phenix Insurance Co. v. Charleston Bridge Co. (C.C.A.), 65 Fed. 628, 632; and Williams v. Detroit Fire & Marine Ins. Co., 280 Mich. 215, 273 N. W. 452. None of the cited cases presents a parallel in point of fact and the legal pronouncements therein are merely to the effect that “an ordinary gust of wind, no matter how prolonged, is not a windstorm.” They do not purport to furnish any standard by which the facts herein may be measured.

We think the correct standard and applicable to the instant situation is stated in Gerhard v. Travelers Fire Ins. Co., 246 Wis. 625, 18 N.W. 2d 336, as follows:

“In the absence of definition or limitation in the policy, we think that a windstorm must be taken to be a wind of sufficient violence to be capable of damaging the insured property either by its own unaided action or by projecting some object against it. This is especially true where, as here, the more violent forms of windstorm are specifically named as something different from a mere windstorm. Any other view would work an imposition upon the insured. If defendant wishes to adopt some scale which establishes the velocity of wind necessary for a windstorm, or if it desires to limit its liability beyond the point that we have indicated, it should incorporate its proposed standard in the policy by clear terms and such ambiguities as are left in this policy should be resolved against it.”

Considering the purpose of the coverage and the field of the risk, it would seem that any wind that is of such extraordinary force and violence as to thereby injuriously disturb the ordinary condition of the things insured is tumultuous in character, and is to be deemed a windstorm within the purview of the policy, in absence of a provision therein to the contrary.

An example of judging the quality of the wind by its effect is to be found in Atlas Assur. Co., Ltd., v. Lies, 70 Ga. App. 162, 27 S. E. (2d) 791, where the court approved an instruction of the trial court wherein it is declared “if you find that the wind blew hard enough to blow a tree down, then that would be the same as a windstorm, if the wind was that hard.” We do not hold that the blowing down of the plum tree above referred to establishes the fact of a windstorm as a matter of law, but we do hold that fact to be competent evidence touching the force and violence of the wind and that same together with other matters herein recited were sufficient to sustain the finding of the jury that a windstorm was the proximate cause of the falling of the roof.

In support of the second ground, to the effect the court erred in admission of opinion testimony as to the cause of the roof’s falling, there is cited Goodlett v. Williamston, 179 Okla. 238, 65 P. 2d 472, which announces the rule that such testimony is not admissible unless based upon facts established by the evidence, and Great American Life Ins. Co. v. Stephenson, 176 Okla. 295, 55 P. 2d 56, and Sterling Milk Products Co. v. Brown, 173 Okla. 452, 49 P. 2d 68, to the effect that it is error to permit a witness to invade the province of the jury by expressing an opinion on the ultimate fact in issue unless within the exception where expert testimony is admissible. The sole objection made at the trial to each of the several hypo[253]*253thetical questions asked was that of “assuming a state of facts not proven.” It is manifest that such objection does not raise the questions discussed in the last two of the cited cases and for that reason we hold there is no basis for the application here of the doctrines thereof. Neither at the trial nor here is there mentioned any fact, assumed in the question, which is contended to be without support in the evidence. And such fact not being apparent from our examination of the record, we do not see that the doctrine of the first cited case has been violated.

As to the alleged error of the court in allowance of interest on the judgment, the following facts are pertinent. It was provided in the policy that the loss was payable 60 days after proof of loss. The verdict rendered represented merely the amount deemed necessary to restore the building and no interest was included. Judgment was rendered for the amount of the verdict with interest thereon from May 15, 1945, at which date under terms of the policy the loss was payable.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

National American Insurance Co. v. Gerlicher Co.
2011 OK CIV APP 94 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 2011)
State Ex Rel. State Insurance Fund v. Accord Human Resources, Inc.
2003 OK 109 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2003)
Kelly v. Farmers Ins. Co., Inc.
281 F. Supp. 2d 1290 (W.D. Oklahoma, 2003)
Taylor v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.
1999 OK 44 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1999)
Shanbour v. Phillips 66 Natural Gas Co.
864 P.2d 815 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1993)
Loffland Bros. Co. v. Overstreet
1988 OK 60 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1988)
Koory v. Western Casualty & Surety Co.
737 P.2d 388 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1987)
Yunker v. Republic-Franklin Insurance
442 N.E.2d 108 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1982)
Rendezvous Trails of America, Inc. v. Ayers
612 P.2d 1384 (Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma, 1980)
Horn v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.
437 F. Supp. 63 (E.D. Oklahoma, 1977)
St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance v. Central Park Mobile Homes
529 P.2d 711 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1974)
Poteete v. MFA Mutual Insurance Company
1974 OK 110 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1974)
Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Brunswick Corp.
437 F.2d 838 (Tenth Circuit, 1971)
Ledford v. Travelers Indemnity Co.
318 F. Supp. 1333 (W.D. Oklahoma, 1970)
Security Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hollingsworth
1969 OK 126 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1969)
Barnes v. Townley
1968 OK 161 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1968)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1948 OK 223, 204 P.2d 982, 201 Okla. 250, 1948 Okla. LEXIS 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-phenix-fire-ins-v-board-of-ed-okla-1948.