Court Opinion

ID: 9775796
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:09:16.174034+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:31.030072
License: Public Domain

GAERTNER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because I do not believe the plaintiffs made a submissible case in that plaintiffs failed to prove their damages were caused by a covered risk. The disputed issue in this case is clear cut: If plaintiffs’ damage was caused by windstorm, defendant’s policy covered the loss, but if the damage was caused by an accumulation of snow, ice, and water on the roof, this was not an insured risk.
In an action of this kind, the plaintiff makes a prima facie case by establishing the issuance of the policy of insurance, delivery, payment of the premium, the loss through or on account of the cause insured against, and the furnishing of notice and proofs to the insurer as required by the policy.... The insured must, of course, bring himself within the *646terms of the policy and prove by substantial evidence that the claim sued on is within the coverage provided by the terms of the insurance contract, (emphasis added)
Grossman Iron & Steel Co. v. Bituminous Casualty Corp., 558 S.W.2d 255, 259 (Mo.App.1977).
Plaintiffs adduced no direct evidence, either through expert or lay testimony, that the collapse of the roof within the walls of the structure, which remained standing, was caused by windstorm. The majority opinion finds an issue submissible to the jury by inferring a causal connection between the evidence of high winds and the fact of damage. Assuming, arguendo, that where plaintiffs’ proof shows only one possible cause, the evidentiary chasm between occurrence and result can be bridged by inference, such is not the case where plaintiffs’ own evidence establishes more than one possible cause of the loss.
The testimony of the plaintiffs was that on the day the roof collapsed they telephoned their insurance agent. The agent came to the scene, took photographs showing an accumulation of snow on the collapsed roof, and told them there was no coverage. Thereafter, plaintiffs consulted their attorney, who prepared a proof of loss dated March 30, 1982, stating “the cause and origin of the said loss were weight on the roof of water, ice, and snow.” This document was signed and sworn to by both plaintiffs and submitted to the insurer which denied the claim on the grounds the loss was caused by a risk not covered by the policy. Plaintiffs then submitted a second proof of loss, dated May 3, 1982, stating the cause to be “wind weakening the structure substantially that the roof collapsed.” Both of these proofs of loss were read to the jury by plaintiff, Katherine Lane, a school principal with a masters degree, as a part of plaintiffs’ case. Plaintiff William Lane testified that they changed their story after the company wrote them a letter denying coverage.
The responsibility rested on plaintiff to produce evidence which justified the factual inference that wind alone caused the damage for which he sought recovery. If the evidence he offered was as consistent with the inference that wind and “water driven by wind” caused that damage, as with the inference that wind alone caused it, the evidence established neither, and he could not recover.
Niagara Fire Insurance Co. v. Muhle, 208 F.2d 191, 194 (8th Cir.1953).
This conclusion is consistent with the well established law in Missouri that an inference logically drawn as a probable consequence from one or more provable facts is a rebuttable “presumption of fact,” State ex rel. Baumann v. Doder, 121 S.W.2d 263, 265 (Mo.App.1938), which remains in force only until repelled by contrary evidence, Branstetter v. Gerdeman, 364 Mo. 1230, 274 S.W.2d 240, 247 (Mo.1955). While a rebuttable presumption may not be destroyed or put to flight merely by some contrary evidence on behalf of him against whom it operates, the opposite is true where the contrary evidence is introduced by the party in whose favor the presumption operates. State ex rel. Baumann v. Doder, 121 S.W.2d at 265. Where plaintiffs’ own evidence supports two inconsistent factual inferences so that' sound reason and logic do not point to the defendant’s liability to the exclusion of other causes, the plaintiffs’ case is not established by legitimate proof and a verdict based upon such inconsistent proof cannot stand. Davis v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 316 S.W.2d 494, 497 (Mo.1958); Pierce v. St. Louis Public Service Co., 380 S.W.2d 943, 947 (Mo.App.1964).
The case of Franklin v. Farmers Mutual Insurance Co., 627 S.W.2d 110 (Mo.App.1982), cited by the majority in support of its conclusion that the evidence made a submissible case, is easily distinguishable. In Franklin, plaintiffs’ evidence was totally consistent with damage from windstorm alone. It was only the defendants’ evidence which introduced the possibility of snow accumulation as a causative factor. Here it was plaintiffs’ own testimony which *647controverted the inference upon which they now rely.
This case is also distinguishable from the case of Hahn v. M.F.A. Insurance Co., 616 S.W.2d 574 (Mo.App.1981). In Hahn, although plaintiffs’ evidence showed that faulty construction plus accumulated snow may have been factors in causing the collapse of a roof, plaintiffs introduced expert opinion testimony that “the direct cause of the failure was due to wind pressure on the roof, ...” and that “the structure was strong enough to stand the snow without the wind.” Id. at 575. Here, plaintiffs introduced no evidence of any kind to establish causation except the inference arising from the coincident existence of high winds and the collapse of the roof. As stated, this inference is controverted, and its sufficiency as a foundation for a sub-missible case destroyed, by plaintiffs’ own evidence of a different cause for the collapse. This cause was not within the coverage of the insurance policy.
I would sustain defendant’s challenges both to the submissibility of plaintiffs’ case, and to the overruling of its motions for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict.