Lene v. M. F. A. Mut. Ins. Co.
| Decision Date | 06 May 1957 |
| Docket Number | No. 22572,22572 |
| Citation | 301 S.W.2d 874 |
| Parties | Joseph Jackson LENE, Sr., Administrator of the Estate of Joseph Jackson Lene, Jr., Deceased, Respondent, v. M. F. A. MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, a Corporation, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
L. F. Cottey, Lancaster, for appellant.
Hess & Collins, Macon, for respondent.
SPERRY, Commissioner.
This suit was brought by Joseph Jackson Lene, Sr., the administrator of Joseph Jackson Lene, Jr., deceased, against M. F. A. Mutual Insurance Company, a Corporation, defendant. Plaintiff sought recovery of $500 for medical and funeral expense of deceased resulting from an automobile accident while deceased was a passenger in another automobile not owned by deceased, or by Clifford Lene, who was deceased's adult bachelor brother, and who lived in the same home with deceased, together with their parents. Trial to the court, on an agreed statement of facts, resulted in judgment for plaintiff for $500, the full amount of the policy coverage under its 'Medical' provisions. Defendant appealed.
Deceased was a bachelor, over 21 years of age, and lived at a farm home with his aged father and mother, who owned the 210-acre farm. Deceased's brother, Clifford, 24 years of age and unmarried, also lived at this home. The two brothers owned all farm equipment and livestock used on the farm, tilled the farm (the father being physically unable to do farm work) and rented and tilled other land. They paid no rent on the farm but all of the family lived by the proceeds of this farm, the mother doing the home work.
Clifford purchased an automobile, it being the only automobile owned by any member of the family. It was used by all members of the family. He was issued a policy of insurance thereon by defendant. That policy contained the following provision, upon the construction of which the decision in this case hinges, to wit: 'Coverage 1--Medical Payments--To pay the reasonable expense incurred within one (1) year from the date of accident for necessary medical, dental, surgical, ambulance, hospital, professional nursing and funeral services, * * * and (b) to or for the first named insured and while residents of his household, his spouse and the relatives of either, who sustain bodily injury, sickness or disease caused by accident, while in or upon, entering or alighting from any automobile not owned by any of such persons covered under (b) hereof, or through being struck by any automobile.'
Plaintiff's theory of this case, and the basis upon which he seeks recovery, is that the deceased was a resident of the household of the insured, Clifford Lene, within the scope and meaning of the above policy, at the time he was injured and died.
Defendant seeks to avoid liability on the ground that the words 'his household' means a household headed by insured, Clifford Lene; that it does not mean a household of which Clifford Lene was a member, together with deceased. Plaintiff contends that the words used may be properly construed to mean the household of which insured...
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...alone, 3 Corbin on Contracts § 558, except where one party construes the contract in a manner against his interest. Lene v. MFA Mutual Insurance Co., Mo.App., 301 S.W.2d 874; Lawton-Byrne-Bruner Insurance Agency Co. v. Stiers Bros. Const. Co., Mo.App., 186 S.W.2d 480, loc. cit. 486. While t......
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