Globe Indemnity Co. v. Brown

364 So. 2d 322, 1978 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 909
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJuly 12, 1978
DocketCiv. 1332
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 364 So. 2d 322 (Globe Indemnity Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Globe Indemnity Co. v. Brown, 364 So. 2d 322, 1978 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 909 (Ala. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

HOLMES, Judge.

This is an insurance case.

Plaintiff-appellees initiated this action seeking to recover under a policy of insurance issued to the plaintiffs by defendant. Plaintiffs claimed to have suffered a loss which was recoverable under the terms of the policy. The case proceeded to trial in the Circuit Court of Mobile County before a jury. Prior to the start of the trial, defendant filed a motion for summary judgment. The trial court denied the motion. The defendant also filed a motion for directed verdict at the close of plaintiffs’ evidence and at the close of all the evidence. Both of these motions were denied by the trial court. Following closing statements and the trial court’s charge, the jury retired and returned a verdict in the amount of $8,021 for the plaintiffs.

We perceive the issues on appeal to be whether the trial court erred to reversal in refusing to direct a verdict for the defendant-appellant or in its refusal to grant defendant’s motion for summary judgment.

The record reveals the following pertinent facts: Plaintiffs were insured under a homeowner’s insurance policy issued by the defendant. Plaintiff — Homer Brown testified that while in the parking lot of a shopping center in Mobile, he was abducted at gun point by a white male. At that point, Brown was robbed of $21 which the thief took from Brown’s billfold. The thief also found some blank checks in Brown’s glove compartment. The thief told plaintiff-Brown that he wanted $18,000 and instructed plaintiff to drive to a local branch bank. Both the thief and plaintiff went inside the bank, at which time plaintiff wrote out a $3,000 check. After the plaintiff wrote out the check, the thief took the check and laid it on the teller’s counter for payment. The thief told the teller that he wanted the money in one hundred dollar bills. The teller placed the $3,000 in an envelope, handed it to the thief and the thief put the envelope in his pocket.

After leaving the bank, the thief told Brown that he would have to raise more money. Having determined that Brown had a certificate of deposit in a safety deposit box at the bank, the two men drove to Brown’s home where they obtained a key for the box. The two men entered the branch bank where Brown’s safety deposit box was located. Upon opening the box, the thief removed the $12,000 certificate of deposit and put it in his pocket. The men then drove to the main branch and attempted to cash the certificate but it had not matured and could not be cashed.

Brown then negotiated a loan from the bank in the amount of $5,000 and the bank issued a cashier’s check in that amount. Upon leaving the bank, the thief took the cashier’s check and put it in his pocket. The men then drove to another branch of the bank to cash the cashier’s check. The two men walked inside the bank; the thief laid the check on the teller’s counter; Brown endorsed the check and presented it to the teller for payment. Again, the thief instructed the teller that he wanted the money in one hundred dollar bills. As with the $3,000 check, the money was paid directly to the thief. After this was completed, the thief told Brown to drive to the campus of the University of South Alabama where the thief then left on foot.

As noted above, the plaintiffs sought to recover the $8,021 from the defendant under the home owner’s policy issued by the defendant. The defendant denied coverage for the sum claimed and further alleged that the policy did not provide coverage for the property allegedly stolen.

The relevant portions of the policy issued to the plaintiffs are as follows:

“COVERAGE C — UNSCHEDULED PERSONAL PROPERTY.
“This policy covers unscheduled personal property usual or incidental to the occupancy of the premises as a dwelling and owned or used by an insured, while on the described premises and, at the option of the Named Insured, owned by others while on a portion of the premises occupied exclusively by the Insured.
“This coverage also includes such unscheduled personal property while elsewhere [324]*324than on the described premises, anywhere in the world:
“1. owned or used by an Insured; or
“2. Special Limits of Liability or Certain Property:
“b. Under Coverage C, this Company shall not be liable for loss in any one occurrence with respect to the following property for more than:
“(1) $100 in the aggregate on money, bullion, numismatic property and bank notes;
“(2) $500 in the aggregate on securities, accounts, bills, deeds, evidence of debt, letters of credit, notes other than bank notes, passports, railroad and other tickets or stamps, including philatelic property; . . . ”
[Emphasis supplied.]

Specifically, defendant contends that the property stolen, in this instance, was money and that coverage was therefore limited to $100 under the terms of the policy.

Plaintiffs, however, argue that the term “money” in the insurance policy is ambiguous with reference to its applicability to “checks” and “cashier’s checks.” Along the same line, plaintiffs contend such an ambiguity is to be submitted to the trier of fact to determine the intention of the parties.

Plaintiffs further argue that even an absence of ambiguity ought to lead to the conclusion that “money” does not in any way include “checks” or “cashier’s checks.” In furtherance of the above, plaintiffs contend checks, not money, were stolen and that since no limitation of liability is set out for them, the whole amount is recoverable.

As noted above, defendant made a motion for a directed verdict at the close of the plaintiffs’ evidence and at the close of all the evidence. The trial court denied both of these motions as well as a motion for summary judgment filed earlier by the defendant. Defendant appeals and alleges as error the denial of these motions by the court.

It is well settled that a motion for a directed verdict is designed to test the sufficiency of the opponent’s evidence. The motion is due to be granted only where the strongest tendencies of all the evidence falls short of raising a reasonable inference of the movant’s, i. e., defendant in the instant case, alleged liability. See Coburn v. American Liberty Insurance Co., Ala., 341 So.2d 717 (1977).

We cannot say in this instance that the evidence falls short of raising an inference of the defendant’s liability. Based upon the evidence presented at trial, the jury could have found a theft of checks suffered by the plaintiff.

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Related

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516 So. 2d 680 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
364 So. 2d 322, 1978 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/globe-indemnity-co-v-brown-alacivapp-1978.