Title: Fireman's Fund Insurance Company v. Cramer

State: florida

Issuer: Florida Supreme Court

Document:

178 So. 2d 581 (1965)
FIREMAN'S FUND INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner,
v.
Robert D. CRAMER, Respondent.
No. 34064.

Supreme Court of Florida.
September 15, 1965.
William Fisher, Jr., of Fisher & Hepner, Pensacola, for petitioner.
Jack S. Graff, of Levin, Askew, Warfield, Levin & Graff, Pensacola, for respondent.
*582 PAUL D. BARNS, Justice (Ret.).
Upon petition for certiorari to review Fireman's Fund Insurance Company v. Cramer, Fla.App., 171 So. 2d 220, certified by the District Court as presenting a question of great public interest, the writ is granted and the decision is quashed.
The petitioner-insurer was a defendant to an action based on an insurance policy indemnifying the respondent-plaintiff against loss under a "comprehensive" coverage of an automobile. Petitioner-insurer denied liability and at trial the court entered a judgment for the plaintiff. Upon appeal, the District Court affirmed. 171 So. 2d 220.
The facts of the case are not in controversy and are fully set forth in the opinion of the District Court, which may be summarized as follows: While the plaintiff was driving his insured automobile, its thermostat stuck, causing the engine to overheat resulting in the pistons melting and the main bearing to "freeze" which completely destroyed the functional use of the engine. There is no evidence of any damage to the automobile, except to the engine, which the trial judge found to have "burned up".
The insurer's policy of indemnity issued to the insured providing for comprehensive coverage provided:
The construction and interpretation of the "comprehensive clause" of such insurance policies is stated by Appleman in 5 Insurance Law and Practice, § 3222, p. 375, as follows:
The exclusionary clause of the policy above quoted excluded certain loss from "loss by collision", but did not exclude such losses (fire, theft, etc.) from the comprehensive clause. It clearly appears that the "comprehensive coverage" covers losses occasioned by such causes as stated in the exclusionary clause, otherwise the "comprehensive coverage" would likely be completely non-comprehensive coverage, i.e., insurance against nothing.
The "comprehensive coverage" of the policy clearly covers losses occasioned by *583 fire, but there was no loss by fire; the loss appears to have been caused by "mechanical or electrical breakdown" and to have been confined thereto. If heat caused by the mechanical breakdown of the engine had resulted in damage by fire to other parts of the automobile, such fire damage would doubtless be within the comprehensive coverage.
Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Company of Iowa v. Stansbury, 291 S.W.2d 347 (Tex.Civil App. 1956) involved an action on a standard form automobile insurance policy giving comprehensive coverage on a trailer and containing the identical exclusionary clause herein involved. Here, a trailer wheel came off its axle solely as the result of mechanical breakdown or failure, and the wheel and trailer then came together in such a manner that the wheel entered the trailer, causing damage to the interior thereof. The court held that the carrier was not responsible for the insured's loss:
We could go further to give our reasons for quashing the decision, but such would be a repetition of the dissent of Judge Sturgis (171 So. 2d 220, 223). We will thus rest with approval of his reasoning and conclusions as therein expressed.
The decision affirming the trial court is quashed and the case remanded to the District Court for further proceedings not inconsistent herewith.
THORNAL, C.J., and DREW, CALDWELL and ERVIN, JJ., concur.