Opinion ID: 1138293
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Issue 5: The admission of testimony concerning premium amounts.

Text: Independent Life contends that the trial court erroneously admitted into evidence testimony given by Casey's expert, Robert Hershbarger, regarding the average premium paid by an Alabama insured for an industrial hospital policy. It maintains that Hershbarger's testimony about the total amount of premiums Independent Life received from insureds holding these hospital policies was speculative and was not supported by the evidence. However, we find that the testimony was based upon such unquestioned facts as the amount of premiums paid by Casey and by Eguel Belk, another Alabama insured whose industrial hospital policy lacked an endorsement; the total number of Alabama-sold industrial hospital policies represented by Independent Life as containing a termination provision; and the percentage of national sales that Alabama sales represented. Further, even though Hershbarger's computations of the average premium paid by an Alabama insured on these policies and the total amount of premiums received by Independent Life from these insureds were approximations, any challenge to the facts upon which he based his computations goes to the weight to be given the testimony, not to its admissibility. Baker v. Edgar, 472 So.2d 968 (Ala.1985). Thus, the trial court correctly admitted the testimony relating to premium payments.