Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Bulliard Farm

915 So. 2d 1014, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 2302, 2005 WL 2864533
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 2, 2005
Docket2005-336
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 915 So. 2d 1014 (Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Bulliard Farm) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fireman's Fund Ins. Co. v. Bulliard Farm, 915 So. 2d 1014, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 2302, 2005 WL 2864533 (La. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

915 So.2d 1014 (2005)

FIREMAN'S FUND INSURANCE COMPANY
v.
BULLIARD FARM, INC.

No. 2005-336.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

November 2, 2005.

*1015 Richard L. Crawford, Newman, Mathis, Brady, & Spedale, Baton Rouge, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellant, Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.

Keith E. Thibodeaux, St. Martinville, LA, for Defendant/Appellee, Bulliard Farm, Inc.

Court composed of SYLVIA R. COOKS, OSWALD A. DECUIR, and MARC T. AMY, Judges.

AMY, Judge.

The plaintiff, a crop insurer, brought suit against the defendant farming operation for non-payment of a crop insurance premium for the year of 2000. The defendant filed a reconventional demand, alleging that although he had requested crop revenue coverage from his insurance agent, the insurer had issued a policy providing *1016 a lower level of coverage. The trial court found that a mutual mistake had existed between the farm operator and insurance agent, and reformed the policy to provide crop revenue coverage. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

James D. Bulliard testified that he has owned Bulliard Farm, Inc. ("Bulliard Farm"), the defendant herein,[1] and grown rice thereon for approximately eight or nine years. He stated that in 1999 he was contacted by Mr. Glenn Daigle, an agent with Buller's Insurance Agency of Bunkie, Louisiana. Mr. Bulliard explained that he purchased an insurance policy through Buller's Insurance Agency which would cover crop damage due to listed natural causes, and that also contained a clause that would provide Crop Revenue Coverage ("CRC"), which provides a guaranteed harvest price per acre for a covered crop. Mr. Bulliard stated that in late January 2000, he spoke with Stanley Buller, a different agent from Buller's Insurance Agency, and informed him that he would like to purchase a CRC policy again for his next harvest. Mr. Bulliard testified that the agent forwarded him a price quote for the new policy, which he stated that he signed and sent back to the agent in February 2000. Mr. Bulliard testified that a few months later he received an insurance policy, which had been issued by Fireman's Fund Insurance Company ("Fireman's Fund"), and began the year's farming operations.

However, after beginning to harvest the rice, he reported to his agent that he believed he may have a claim for the difference between the amount he thought he would receive for his rice and the guaranteed harvest price. Mr. Bulliard stated that he was then informed that he had not procured a CRC policy, but instead was only insured under a Multiple Peril Crop Insurance ("MPCI") policy, which would cover certain named perils only, such as flood, drought, or excess moisture. Mr. Bulliard asserts that because he never received the difference between the amount he finally sold his rice for and the guaranteed harvest price, he never paid the premium price for the MPCI policy.[2]

Fireman's Fund subsequently filed suit to recover the $6,949 premium payment. Bulliard Farm, in turn, filed a reconventional demand, seeking to recover the guaranteed harvest price under the alleged CRC policy and damages. Following a trial on the matter, the trial court found that there had been a mutual mistake when Mr. Bulliard ordered the 2000 insurance policy, and reformed the MPCI policy to a CRC policy. Mr. Bulliard was awarded $25,749.78 in damages.[3] The trial court *1017 also dismissed Fireman's Fund's claims against Bulliard Farm and ordered the insurance company to notify certain government entities that Bulliard Farm was not delinquent in its payment of the premium. Fireman's Fund now appeals, asserting the following assignments of error:

1. The Trial Court committed error by reforming the insurance contract for the year 2000.
2. The Trial Court committed error by admitting defendant's exhibit 6 as a business record hearsay exception.

Discussion

Reformation of Insurance Contract

For its first assignment of error, Fireman's Fund asserts that the trial court erred in reforming the crop insurance contract for 2000 from providing MPCI coverage to CRC coverage.

A contract may be reformed as an equitable remedy, in order to correct mistakes in a written instrument due to fraud or error and to conform the instrument to the original intent of the parties. Capdeville v. White's Temple of Church of God in Christ, 99-1040 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/22/99), 755 So.2d 923; Tate v. Charles Aguillard Ins. & Real Estate, 494 So.2d 1240 (La.App. 3 Cir.1986). The burden is on the party seeking reformation to establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that a mutual mistake has occurred. Farmers-Merch. Bank v. St. Katherine Ins. Co., 96-1138 (La.App. 3 Cir. 4/30/97), 693 So.2d 876, writ denied, 97-1867 (La.10/31/97), 703 So.2d 25.

A mutual mistake is a mistake shared by both parties to the instrument at the time of reducing their agreement to writing, and the mistake is mutual if the contract has been written in terms which violate the understanding of both parties; that is, if it appears that both have done what neither intended. The evidence of mutuality must relate to the time of the execution of the instrument and show that the parties then intended to say one thing and by mistake expressed another and different thing.

Teche Realty & Inv. v. Morrow, 95-1473, p. 4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 4/17/96), 673 So.2d 1145, 1147 (quoting Succession of Jones v. Jones, 486 So.2d 1124, 1127 (La.App. 2 Cir.), writ denied, 489 So.2d 249 (La.1986)). This court has stated that a trial court's determination of the presence or absence of mutual error is a question of fact that should not be disturbed on appeal unless it is clearly wrong. Id.

In the instant matter, the trial court found that there was mutual error because Mr. Bulliard and the insurance agent both thought that they had actually agreed to a CRC policy. However, Fireman's Fund argues that any error was unilaterally made by Bulliard Farm, pointing out in its appellate brief that Mr. Bulliard "signed the application clearly showing he did not have crop revenue coverage." The trial court discussed the insurance application in its detailed reasons for judgment, which reviewed the testimony provided *1018 by the two witnesses at trial. The trial court stated:

The undisputed testimony at trial was given by James Bulliard of Bulliard Farm, Inc. His testimony is credible and uncontroverted. Mr. Bulliard testified that in 1999 he obtained crop insurance from Buller's Insurance Agency. That crop insurance was given through a CRC crop loss policy. In 1999 Mr. Bulliard discussed with Mr. Daigle of Buller's Insurance Agency the desire for and issuance of the CRC insurance policy. After the crop in 1999, Bulliard Farm, Inc. was paid for the losses under the policy.
In January of 2000 Mr. Bulliard contacted Buller's Insurance Agency again for issuance of similar insurance for the crop year of 2000. On that occasion he talked with a Mr. Stanley of Buller's Insurance Agency. Mr. Stanley advised Mr. Bulliard that there were two different policies that could be issued for the 2000 crop year. Those policies were a CRC policy or a MPCI policy. Stanley advised Mr. Bulliard that he would send him quotations for the two policies in the mail. Mr. Bulliard received those quotations and they are introduced in evidence as Defendant's Exhibit 1.

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Bluebook (online)
915 So. 2d 1014, 2005 La. App. LEXIS 2302, 2005 WL 2864533, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/firemans-fund-ins-co-v-bulliard-farm-lactapp-2005.