Court Opinion

ID: 9539705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:08:49.407994+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:59:15.106526
License: Public Domain

Beasley, Judge,
concurring specially.
The question is whether the life insurance policy issued to Benny R. Brown as the insured covers the death of his child, which occurred before birth. The facts are undisputed that the child died on his way to birth and was not born alive.
The question is primarily one of contract construction, and all of those rules which we must apply obtain here.
The insurer agreed to pay death benefits to Benny for the death of a family member upon “due proof of the death of such person.” *77Eligible family members are his spouse and: “Your dependent children named in the application or acquired later. A dependent child is your: (a) natural child; (b) step-child; or (c) legally adopted child. The child must depend primarily upon you for support and maintenance. The child must be unmarried and not have reached his/her 19th birthday at issue.”
Decided December 1, 1986
C. G. Jester, Jr., Guerry R. Moore, for appellant.
Edward Benton, Edward W. Clary, for appellees.
The insurer does not dispute the fact that Dustin Chad Brown was a “child” of insured’s at the time of his intrauterine death. What it does contest is that he was a dependent child, as that term is described in the policy. Although this policy does not expressly exclude stillborn children, which the policy drafters could have stated, that does not automatically include such children. Instead, the matter of dependency is crucial and in this case governs.
The insurer has not conclusively shown that the child did not depend primarily on Benny Brown for support and maintenance, and thus there is a factual issue still to be resolved. However, it is hard to conceive of facts, given the record already established in this case, which would show that the intrauterine child was not primarily dependent on his mother instead, not only for food and shelter and all he needed, but for life itself. It may very well be that additional evidence will conclusively establish that the child never became primarily dependent on his father.
The unambiguous terms of the policy compel this conclusion. Executive Auto Leasing v. Guaranty Nat. Ins. Co., 170 Ga. App. 860, 863 (318 SE2d 733) (1984); Terrell v. Life Ins. Co. of North America, 174 Ga. App. 753, 755 (2) (331 SE2d 609) (1985).
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Deen joins in this special concurrence.