Lovett v. Webb

183 So. 2d 97, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3739
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 21, 1965
DocketNo. 6504
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 183 So. 2d 97 (Lovett v. Webb) 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
Lovett v. Webb, 183 So. 2d 97, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3739 (La. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

On January 14, 1962, Mrs. Gladys Aydell Lovett, one of the petitioners herein became involved in an automobile accident on U. S. Highway No. 190 in the Parish of Livingston, Louisiana, with an automobile being driven by Mrs. Jennie Robinson Varnado Webb. As a result of the collision, Mrs. Lovett and four of her minor children sustained serious bodily injury, and a fifth child was killed instantly.

The instant suit was thereafter instituted by Mrs. Lovett, and Mr. Lovett, both individually and for and in behalf of his minor children. The suit named as defendants Mrs. Jennie Robinson Varnado Webb and State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, her liability insurer. The suit was subsequently dismissed as to Mrs. Webb, leaving State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company as the sole defendant in the case.

While in not so many words admitting that Mrs. Webb’s negligent and careless operation of her automobile caused the accident, State Farm offered no evidence to contradict the clear and positive proof offered by plaintiffs that Mrs. Lovett was without fault, and that the sole and proximate cause of the accident stemmed from the reckless, careless, and dangerous operation of the Webb vehicle. The defendant relied for its defense solely on the contention that Mrs. Webb made a false statement in connection with her application for insurance with the defendant, and that this false statement was a material misrepresentation negating and voiding the insurance contract ab initio.

[98]*98The record discloses that on December 4, 1961, Jennie Varnado submitted a written application for a policy of automobile liability insurance, which application contained a representation and declaration by her that her license to drive an automobile had not been suspended, revoked or refused within the past five years from the date of the application. Subsequent to the receipt by the defendant of this application, a policy of insurance was in fact issued to Jennie Varnado, said policy having a stated policy period commencing December 4, 1961 and ending June 4, 1962. The accident in question occurred on January 14, 1962. After the accident was reported to the defendant, and in the course of its investigation of the accident, the defendant discovered that Jennie Varnado’s driver’s license had been revoked for a period of sixty days as part of a sentence which had been imposed upon her on November 22, 1961 by the 19th Judicial District Court in the Parish of East Baton Rouge, the sentence having been imposed as a result of a conviction of driving while intoxicated. Her license was surrendered to the State on November 22, 1961, with the sixty day period of revocation terminating on January 22, 1962.

Based upon the fact that Mrs. Webb had already been convicted of the offense of driving while intoxicated and the fact that her license was in fact under revocation at the time of her application for insurance, at the time of the issuance of the policy of insurance, and at the time of the accident, the defendant company took the position that her failure to disclose these facts to the insurer were material misrepresentations sufficient to grant to the defendant the right to declare the policy of insurance void ab initio.

After a trial on the merits, the Trial Judge rendered written reasons for judgment wherein he found that the misrepresentations made by Mrs. Webb, then Mrs. Varnado, were of sufficient magnitude so as to constitute material misrepresentations which would allow the defendant to rescind and void its policy ab initio, and thus denied any recovery whatsoever to the plaintiffs. It is from this judgment that the plaintiffs have appealed.

At the time of the trial, Mr. Fortenberry, the agent for the defendant who wrote the application which was signed by Mrs. Webb, then Mrs. Varnado, testified that he had asked Mrs. Webb each and every question contained in the application for insurance, that he had written her answers into the application form himself, and then when it was completed, had had Mrs. Webb sign it. He further testified that as an agent, he was aware of the company’s prohibition against even taking a signed application from anyone whose license had previously been revoked. He testified that in these instances, it was company policy for him to submit an inquiry form to the company which had been signed by the applicant. He testified that the difference between the submission of an application form and an inquiry form was that the acceptance by him of the application form together with all or a portion of the premium therefor in effect constituted a binder of the coverage, whereas the submission of the inquiry form at no time and under no circumstances constituted a binder. He testified that there were several problems in a person’s present or past driving history which were grounds for submission of an inquiry rather than completion and submission of an application form. Mr. Fortenberry testified positively that his company did not accept applications or issue insurance policies where the applicant’s driver’s license was under suspension or revocation, at the time that he accepted Mrs. Webb’s application. He indicated that that company policy was still in effect at the time of the trial. We might mention here that Mrs. Webb did not testify for either party at the time of the trial.

The underwriting superintendent for the defendant testified at length relative to company policy in connection with persons whose driver’s license is under suspension or revocation or persons who have been convicted of driving while intoxicated in the past, irrespective of whether or not the [99]*99revocation is still in force and effect. His testimony, like the agent’s, indicates positively that coverage under no circumstances would he extended where a driver’s license had been revoked on account of drunken driving. We, like the Trial Judge, have no difficulty in concluding that the lack of a driver’s license by reason of it having been revoked as a result of a conviction for driving while intoxicated is sufficient reason to cause any company, if it knew the true facts, to reject that person’s application for liability insurance.

The appellant urges three specifications of error, the first of which is that the Trial Court erred in not applying the specific wording of the policy and finding that the company issued the policy in reliance upon statements in the declarations and not on statements in the application. The second specification of error urged by the appellant is that the Trial Court erred in not making a distinction between recision of a policy and the cancellation of a policy in violation of the clear wording of the policy itself. Appellant’s third specification of error is that the Trial Court erred in failing to find that the defendant’s defense is an affirmative one and requires a preponderance of the evidence to support it.

With reference to appellant’s first specification of error, we believe that this question has been previously decided by the United State Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit, in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Lee, 343 F.2d 55. In that case that court said the following:

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Related

Shelter Ins. Co. v. Cruse
446 So. 2d 893 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1984)
Vest v. Richardson
253 So. 2d 97 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1971)
Lusk v. Travelers Insurance Co.
250 So. 2d 197 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1971)
Lovett v. Webb
183 So. 2d 651 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
183 So. 2d 97, 1965 La. App. LEXIS 3739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lovett-v-webb-lactapp-1965.