Court Opinion

ID: 9608852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 03:18:49.518907+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:22:06.610409
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I concur in the judgment and in the majority opinion except the reasoning therein that the ease of Volf v. Ocean Accident & Guar. Corp., 50 Cal.2d 373, 377 [325 P.2d 987], is distinguishable from Hauenstein v. Saint Paul-Mercury Indem. Co., 242 Minn. 354 [65 N.W.2d 122], relied upon in support of the conclusion reached in the case at bar. In my opinion the conclusion reached by a majority of this court *567in the instant case is inconsistent with that reached by it in the Volf ease. In my dissenting opinion in the Volf ease I set forth in detail the reasons why the insurance policy there involved was ambiguous and why, under the decided cases, such ambiguity should be resolved in favor of the insured. I pointed out that the primary function of insurance is to insure—to provide full coverage of the indicated risk. Businessmen are not usually lawyers and in the normal course of events must rely on the agents of insurance companies when buying insurance. If this court continues to “interpret” patently ambiguous and inconsistent clauses in insurance policies to the detriment of the insured rather than resolving such ambiguities in his favor, the door will be opened for still more ambiguities and even less insurance coverage for the money expended than is presently the ease. It is my view that this court could, and should, when such an ambiguous policy is before it, hold without equivocation that the provisions which are confusing and ambiguous as to the liability covered will be resolved in favor of the insured. If a few of such forthright decisions were rendered by this court in this field it would not be long before insurance policies were more clearly and understandably written to express the true intent of the parties and there would be less litigation involving insurance policies.