Court Opinion

ID: 9564189
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:55:44.758417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:16.062259
License: Public Domain

Evans, Judge,
dissenting. I dissent from the majority holding in Division 2 of the opinion that the trial court committed reversible error as to its instructions to the jury on the way and manner in which insurance policies are interpreted.
1. The majority opinion, relying upon California Ins. Co. v. Blumburg, 101 Ga. App. 587 (2) (115 SE2d 266), overlooks the factual situation in the case sub judice, and that same is squarely within the exception therein discussed; and overlooks the later case of State Hwy. Dept. v. W. L. Cobb Const. Co., 111 Ga. App. 822 (4) (143 SE2d 500), which is exactly in point with the case sub judice.
2. The Blumburg case, supra, relied on by the majority, at page 592, cites three cases in support of its holding, but none of those three cases involves a reversal of a trial judge for erroneously charging the jury. The Blumburg case, further, in the second headnote, holds that "it was error for the trial judge to instruct the jury that they should construe the insurance contract against the company. ” (Emphasis supplied.) In the case sub judice, the trial *581judge did not instruct the jury that they should construe the contract, and a careful reading of his charge will show that he merely gave them the rules under which same was construed. In failing to tell the jury that it was their duty to make the construction the only meaning that could have been by the jury attached to the charge on this point was that the judge himself had so construed the policy.
3. Now we come to the exception. At the bottom of p. 591 the Blumburg case holds: " 'The construction of a contract is a question of law for the court. Where any matter of fact is involved (as the proper reading of an obscurely written word), the jury should find the fact.’ Code § 20-701. There was no issue in the case to which this instruction would have been applicable. ” (Emphasis supplied.)
But there was such an issue in the case sub judice. Plaintiffs complaint, in paragraph 2, alleged as to what the defendant agreed and promised to make good and indemnify. In other words, plaintiff was alleging what the policy of insurance meant and what it insured. But defendant made a factual issue of this allegation, and denied paragraph 2 of complaint, and alleged that plaintiffs allegation as to what was insured and what the policy meant, was an incorrect conclusion on plaintiffs part as to the legal effect of the policy, and "said allegations ignore numerous provisions of said policy and are specifically denied.”
By this answer, defendant made an issue and question of fact as to the interpretation and construction of the policy, and did so in the most vague and general manner imaginable, by referring to "numerous provisions of the policy,” without specifying or designating any particular provision. We repeat, this made an issue of fact as to the meaning of the policy. This question could have been removed from the pleadings as a question of fact by motion to strike, or by motion for pre-trial order, leaving construction of the contract to the court, and requesting that he construe same. But this was not done. The factual question as to the meaning of the policy was left in the pleadings. Of course, the issues in a case are properly framed by the pleadings. York v. Stonecypher, 181 Ga. 435, 437 (182 SE 605). It has been held time without number that a trial judge may properly charge on any issue made by the pleadings, and this is without regard to whether such issue is supported by evidence. The mere fact that it is made an issue in the pleadings, authorizes the charge thereon. Western & A. R. v. Lochridge, 170 Ga. 208, 219 (152 SE 474); s.c., 39 Ga. App. *582246 (4) (146 SE 776); Matthews & Co. v. Seaboard A. L. R., 17 Ga. App. 664 (87 SE 1097); White v. Knapp, 31 Ga. App. 344 (7a) (120 SE 796); Ga. R. &c. Co. v. Simms, 33 Ga. App. 535 (5) (126 SE 850); Hunt v. Pollard, 55 Ga. App. 423 (5) (190 SE 71); Oast v. Mopper, 58 Ga. App. 506, 507 (199 SE 249); Ga. Power Co. v. Sheats, 58 Ga. App. 730, 742 (199 SE 582); Atlantic C. L. R. Co. v. Ansley, 84 Ga. App. 89 (3) (65 SE2d 463).
Therefore, the charge in this case comes within the exception noted in the Blumburg case, relied on by the majority.
4. A case overlooked by the majority opinion is that of State Hwy. Dept. v. W. L. Cobb Const. Co., 111 Ga. App. 822 (4) supra. This case holds that it is proper to charge the jury as to the manner of construing a contract where the parties thereto differ among themselves as to the proper interpretation in pari materia of various contract provisions. The judge charged the jury that the contract should be construed most strongly against the party preparing it. He also instructed the jury (p. 830) to construe a certain section in connection with other provisions of the same section. (Note that this went much further than construing one obscurely written word.) This was held to be a correct principle of law; and was further specifically held not to be error to so charge the jury. Thus, under this authority, the trial judge did not commit error in the case sub judice.
5. Having left in the pleadings an issue of fact as to the real meaning of the policy, plaintiff contending one thing and defendant denying same and contending something else, and making reference to the various provisions of the policy as proof, then the trial judge was authorized to charge the jury on the way and manner in which a policy of insurance is construed. This was injected into the case by defendant’s own conduct in denying the meaning attributed to the policy by plaintiff', and taking no steps to remove this issue of fact from the pleadings, by motion to strike, pre-trial conference, or otherwise. It is too late now for defendant to complain of action of the court which his own conduct produces. Steed v. State, 123 Ga. 569 (2) (51 SE 627); Caesar v. State, 127 Ga. 710 (2) (57 SE 66); Gaskins v. State, 12 Ga. App. 97 (4) (76 SE 777).
6. It is not enough to show error. Before a new trial will be granted, it must be shown that the judge’s charge to the jury was not only erroneous, but that it hurt the losing party. Williams v. State, 180 Ga. 595 (3) (180 SE 101); Rolan v. Rittenhouse, 107 Ga. App. 769 (3) (131 SE2d 112). If, in considering the charge as a whole, it is improbable that the jury was misled, a new trial will not be *583granted, even though the charge omitted certain applicable instructions. Stanley v. Squadrito, 107 Ga. App. 651 (8, 9) (131 SE2d 227). Where was the hurt or damage to the defendant in the charge that was given in this case? How can it possibly be said that any injury accrued to defendant because the jury was instructed that policies of insurance are construed most strongly against the insurance company, when this is the law?
7. The majority opinion spends the first five pages in discussing the ambiguity of the contract, and tersely suggests on page 576 "... insurers might well consider clarifying their contracts.” The majority therefore says the contract was ambiguous — we agree— and defendant was mistaken in stating that the contract was not ambiguous. The second premise is that the trial court, in effect, instructed the jury to construe the contract. The trial court did no such thing; he simply instructed the jury as to the way and manner in which such insurance contracts are construed. The language of the charge was: "The court further charges you gentlemen of the jury that where an insurance policy is fairly susceptible to two or more different constructions, the reasonable construction is the one which will be adopted...” A painstaking search of the entire charge will not show that the trial judge ever instructed the jury to construe the policy or that it was the duty of the jury to construe said policy. He simply instructed the jury as to the way in which policies of insurance are construed; and he gave them the correct law. Failing to ever instruct the jury to construe the policy necessarily conveyed to the jury only one thought, to wit: that it was not their duty to construe the policy because the judge had not instructed them that it was their duty to do so; and that its construction had been made by some other authority, using the rules of construction which had been correctly explained to the jury by the court. And, re-inforcing this contention, the trial judge himself proceeded at some length, immediately following the language objected to in the charge, to construe the policy himself in the presence of and for the benefit of the jury (see Tr. pp. 127-128), including the meaning of the contract’s definition of the person insured; and as to the definition of a messenger and his duties.