Opinion ID: 1618299
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: The relevant facts essentially are undisputed. Kennon Ready-Mix Inc. employed Mr. Burns to drive a concrete-mixer truck. Mr. Smith served as Mr. Burns's supervisor. This Court held on prior appeal of the underlying tort judgment against Mr. Smith that he was acting outside the scope of his duties at Kennon and increased the risk to Mr. Burns when placing a weld on a cement truck's salvage water-pressure tank over an area that had become corroded and rusted through. The weld was made defectively, and the tank later exploded, seriously injuring Mr. Burns. See Burns v. Smith, 214 S.W.3d 335, 340 (Mo. banc 2007). In addition to recovering worker's compensation benefits from Kennon, Mr. Burns filed a negligence suit against Mr. Smith. When Mr. Smith's insurers refused to defend, Mr. Smith and Mr. Burns entered into an agreement pursuant to § 537.065, RSMo 2000, under which they agreed that the case would be tried to the court and that Mr. Burns would limit his recovery, if any, to any applicable insurance proceeds. The trial court found Mr. Smith liable for negligence and awarded Mr. Burns $2,044,278 in damages. Mr. Burns then filed the instant equitable garnishment action against Mr. Smith's policy with Oak River and against his Farmowners-Ranchowners policy with Farmers. During the pendency of the garnishment action, this Court affirmed the judgment for Mr. Burns against Mr. Smith, holding that Mr. Smith's conduct was outside the scope of his duties for the company and, therefore, that his conduct did not come within the exclusivity provisions of the worker's compensation statutes. Burns, 214 S.W.3d at 335. Following this Court's ruling, Oak River settled with Mr. Burns for $675,000. The garnishment action on the Farmers policy proceeded to hearing. The Farmers policy, which covered Mr. Smith's dwelling, household property and farm premises, provided $1 million in personal liability coverage for all sums which the Insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury or property damage, to which this insurance applies, caused by an occurrence. The trial court found that, under this provision, Farmers was liable for its $1 million policy limits and that other provisions of the policy made it responsible for prejudgment interest on the policy limits and post-judgment interest on the entire amount of the underlying judgment. Farmers now appeals, alleging that an exclusion to coverage applied and that, even were the exclusion inapplicable because ambiguous, the trial court erred in calculating the amount of prejudgment and post-judgment interest.