Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Aird

• Citation: 108 F.2d 136
• Decision Date: 14 December 1939
• Docket Number: No. 9146.,9146.
• Parties: ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO. v. AIRD et al.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

108 F.2d 136 (1939)

ÆTNA LIFE INS. CO. v. AIRD et al.

No. 9146.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

December 14, 1939.

J. D. Wheeler, of San Antonio, Tex., for appellant.

George Cannon and C. W. Trueheart, both of San Antonio, Tex., for appellees.

Before SIBLEY, HUTCHESON, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.

HUTCHESON, Circuit Judge.

The suit, upon an accident policy, was for the double indemnity it offered insured for injuries, caused "by collapse of the outer walls, or burning of a building, if the insured is therein, at the time of the collapse or commencement of the fire."

The claim was that, within the meaning of the policy, an automobile trailer was "a building", and insured's death was caused by its burning. The defense was; (a) that, the trailer was not and could not be "a building" within the policy terms; and (b) that, insured's death was not caused by its burning, but by the preceding gasoline explosion.

The evidence in, plaintiffs' and defendant, each, moved for an instructed verdict. Plaintiffs' motion was that, as matter of law, they had made out, defendant's that as matter of law, they had failed to make out, the case they sued on.

The District Judge denied both motions. Thereafter, the parties agreeing, he reserved for his own decision, whether the trailer was "a building" within the policy, and submitted to the jury, subject to the motions for verdict, the single question; whether the insured's loss of life was caused by the burning of the trailer, "he being therein at the time of the commencement of the fire."

Both parties moving for judgment upon the coming in of the verdict, the District Judge denied defendant's, granted plaintiffs', motion. In a thoughtful opinion,¹ which leaves little to be said, he clearly and fully set out the undisputed facts and gave well considered reasons for his affirmative conclusion upon them, that as located and used at the time of the fire, the trailer was "a building", and that within the coverage of the policy, insured's death had been caused by its burning.

Agreeing with the statement and conclusions of, and with most of what is said in, the opinion, we refer to it with approval, and will content ourselves here with briefly summarizing the material facts, as the record discloses them, and with elaborating only a little upon the reasons the District Judge gave for his conclusion.

Streamlined, mounted on two wheels, and capable when connected with beast or vehicle having motive and tractor power, of swift and easy motion, though it was, it was not automotive, and it was not bought to be, nor was it, used, except incidentally, for locomotion. The only use made of its movability was to get it to the place where it was to be used, just as ready cut houses, if small enough, may be and sometimes are moved, and set up complete. Well, indeed completely, equipped as a place in which to live, with beds, bath, toilet, cooking facilities, side walls, a roof and floors, and with cross walls subdividing it into parts, it was bought and equipped to be, and at the time of the fire, was being and had for a week been, used, as deceased's residence and office combined. In effect, a modern efficiency apartment, it had been transported to the oil field where the deceased was drilling a well, and there, disconnected from the automobile, it had been raised up, its four corners supported by four heavy special jacks placed directly underneath its substantial steel braced beamed floor, and its outside walls. Thus, what had been built for a dwelling or place to live, movable from place to place, was at rest, and was being occupied as a dwelling, as completely as if, instead of a trailer, it were a ready cut or knocked-down house, transported to the field, either set up, or in units for setting up.

As such, it was certainly a building, in the sense of a dwelling, 12 C.J.S., Building, p. 378, Rouse v. Catskill & N. Y. Steamboat Co., 59 Hun 80, 13 N.Y.S. 126; Neekamp v. Huntington Chamber of Commerce, 99 W.Va. 388, 129 S.E. 314. It was too, a building, in the generic sense of something built or constructed for use as a shelter or habitation for man or beast. If instead, of a completed trailer, the material which made it up, had been assembled on the lease, and there built into a dwelling or habitation for deceased's use, no one could, we think, contend that the resulting structure was not a building. The fact that it was completed before transportation and equipped with wheels to roll it, does not, we think, at all change the undisputed fact that in every essential respect, it was built for and was being used by deceased, as a shelter and habitation, in short, a dwelling. The District Judge, in his opinion pointed out the great scope...