Court Opinion

ID: 8170909
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-09 21:15:23.739568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:39:45.241299
License: Public Domain

Billings, J.,
dissenting. Disputed contractual language in an insurance contract which is seemingly clear and unambiguous must be read in its plain, ordinary and popular sense, Utica *324Mutual Insurance Co. v. Central Vermont Railway, Inc., 133 Vt. 292, 294, 336 A.2d 200, 202 (1975); Noyes v. Commercial Travelers, 125 Vt. 336, 339, 215 A.2d 495, 497 (1965), and the insurance contract is to be construed according to its terms and the evident intent of the parties. Utica Mutual Insurance Co. v. Central Vermont Railway, Inc., supra, 133 Vt. at 295, 336 A.2d at 203. If exclusory language in liability insurance coverage provisions is susceptible to two different meanings the Court is bound to adopt the construction most favorable to the insured. Id.; Town of Troy v. American Fidelity Co., 120 Vt. 410, 418, 143 A.2d 469, 474 (1958). On the record here the exclusion provisions were susceptible to two interpretations as to whether loss by snow, storm and sleet was excluded or covered by the insurance contract.
The majority, although noting that the trial court found that the policy could have been written in a “clearer” way, concludes that there is no ambiguity. In my view the contract provisions were capable of two interpretations and only became unambiguous when the majority so declared it. I dissent and would affirm the lower court judgment.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice Hill joins in this dissent.