Garoutte v. Farmers Mutual Insurance Co.

823 S.W.2d 526, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 192, 1992 WL 10847
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 29, 1992
DocketNo. 17400
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 823 S.W.2d 526 (Garoutte v. Farmers Mutual Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Garoutte v. Farmers Mutual Insurance Co., 823 S.W.2d 526, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 192, 1992 WL 10847 (Mo. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinion

FLANIGAN, Chief Judge.

On November 21, 1988, plaintiff Wilburn Garoutte filed this action against defendant Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Lawrence County, Missouri, a farmers mutual insurance company organized under Chapter 380 RSMo.1 The petition sought recovery under a fire insurance policy issued on November 15, 1983, by defendant to plaintiff for a policy term of three years commencing November 2,1983, with premiums payable semi-annually. On August 9, 1984, the insured dwelling was destroyed by fire.

The parties agree on the following facts:

“The policy did not continue beyond the first year of issue, November 2,' 1983, to November 2, 1984. Defendant considered the policy having been cancelled in accordance with the allegations of its answer (alleging misrepresentation), and plaintiff considered the policy as lapsed after the first year for non-payment of premiums. No special assessments were made against the policy or the insured within one year after the fire loss. The reverse cover of the policy in question contains the following statement: This policy is assessable. On page 3 of the policy there is a statement that no suit of action on the policy shall be sustainable at law or equity unless commenced within twelve months next after inception of the loss.”

Defendant filed a motion to dismiss on the ground that the action was barred, “by limitation under the provisions of § 380.591 and § 380.840 Mo.RS,” and on the ground that there was no compliance with the policy provision, set forth above, requiring that a suit on the policy be “commenced within twelve months next after inception of loss.”

Section 380.840 RSMo 1978, which was in effect on the date the policy was issued and on the date of the fire loss, was repealed in 1984. 1984 Mo. Laws 663, H.B. 1498 § 1. Section 380.840 read, in pertinent part:

No suit or action for any loss shall be commenced until such loss becomes due in accordance with the policy, and in no event until sixty days have elapsed after proof of loss has been given the company. No such suit or action shall be sustainable in any court of law or equity unless all the requirements of the policy shall have been complied with, nor unless commenced within twelve months next after the loss.

Section 380.591, relating to the same subject, was enacted in 1984 and became effective January 1, 1985. It reads:

1. No suit or action for any loss under an assessable policy shall be commenced until such loss becomes due in [528]*528accordance with the policy, and in no event until sixty days have elapsed after proof of loss has been given the company. No such suit or action shall be sustainable in any court unless all the requirements of the policy have been complied with, nor unless commenced within twelve months next after the loss. The limitations permitted under the provisions of this section shall be clearly and prominently declared on the face page of any assessable policy.
2. Any action based upon a policy issued on a nonassessable basis shall be subject to the statutes of limitations applicable to a similar cause of action.

The trial court, after an evidentiary hearing, sustained the motion and entered an order of dismissal. Plaintiff appeals.

At the hearing on the motion, the trial court took judicial notice of the proceedings in a prior action between the parties on the same claim. The prior action was filed in the Circuit Court of Barry County on December 6, 1984, was transferred to Lawrence County on a change of venue, and was dismissed by plaintiff without prejudice on November 21, 1988, the day the instant action was filed.

Plaintiffs first point is that the trial court erred in dismissing the action because “the statute of limitations is procedural and the statute existing when the suit was filed applies to the cause of action; the plaintiff’s filing of November 21, 1988, was timely under § 516.1202 in that the policy in question was not then ‘assessable’ and the one year limitation of § 380.591 was not applicable to the cause of action.”

In effect, plaintiff is contending that the instant action is governed by § 380.591.2 and, so viewed, was timely filed.

In Updegraff v. Farmers Mut. Ins. Co., 782 S.W.2d 700 (Mo.App.1989), the insured brought an action against a farmers mutual insurance company organized under Chapter 380. The policy was issued on December 10, 1984, and was a three-year term assessable policy. The loss occurred on July 14, 1985. The action was brought more than three years after the loss. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of the insurer because the action was not brought within 12 months after the loss as required by the policy and by § 380.840 RSMo 1978.

The court discussed § 380.840 RSMo 1978, and § 380.591, both set out supra. The policy was issued after the new law, § 380.591, was enacted, but before it became effective. The insured argued that § 380.591 applied to the policy and that the policy did not comply with the last sentence of § 380.591.1 which required the 12-month limitation to be clearly and prominently declared on the face page of any assessable policy.

In rejecting that argument, and affirming the judgment, the court said, at page 702:

The insurance policy issued to Mr. Up-degraff was issued December 10, 1984. The insurance company was then a farmers’ mutual insurance company. Sections 380.001 to 380.860, RSMo 1978, had not yet been repealed and were the applicable law. Section 380.840, RSMo 1978, established a twelve-month statute of limitations but did not require that notice of it appear on the policy’s face page. The insurance company was not required to provide notice of the twelve-month statute of limitations on the face page of the policy issued to Mr. Updegraff on December 10, 1984.

The court also said, at page 703, that the legislature, in enacting §§ 380.011 to 380.-611, which included § 380.591, “did not intend to require amendment of the face page of assessable insurance contracts existing before January 1, 1985.”

Section 380.591 became effective after the policy in Updegraff was issued but before the loss occurred. The court held [529]*529that the third sentence of § 380.591.1 did not apply. In the case at bar, both the issuance of the policy and the occurrence of the loss preceded the effective date of § 380.591. A fortiori, the third sentence of § 380.591.1 does not apply here.

A statute which affects only the remedy may properly apply to a cause of action which has already accrued and is existing at the time the statute is enacted. Ordinary statutes of limitation are held to affect the remedy only. The principle is well settled that the period of limitation prescribed by such statutes may be enlarged and become applicable to existing causes of action, but an enlargement of the period of limitation may not revive a cause of action which has been barred under the limitation as it previously existed.

Wentz v. Price Candy Co., 175 S.W.2d 852, 853[1,2] (Mo.1943).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
823 S.W.2d 526, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 192, 1992 WL 10847, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/garoutte-v-farmers-mutual-insurance-co-moctapp-1992.