Pruitt v. Farmers Ins. Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 30 July 1997
• Docket Number: No. 21248,21248
• Citation: 950 S.W.2d 659
• Parties: Jason PRUITT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FARMERS INSURANCE COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 659

950 S.W.2d 659

Jason PRUITT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FARMERS INSURANCE COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Respondent.

No. 21248.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Southern District,

Division One.

July 30, 1997.

Motion for Rehearing or Transfer

Denied Aug. 20, 1997.

Application to Transfer Denied

Sept. 30, 1997.

David W. Ransin, Springfield, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Randy R. Cowherd, Tamara Flikkema de Wild, Springfield, for Defendant-Respondent.

GARRISON, Judge.

This is a declaratory judgment action in which Jason Pruitt (Jason ¹) sought to establish himself as an insured under automobile insurance policies issued to his uncle by Farmers Insurance Company, Inc. (Farmers). On this appeal, Jason contends that the trial court erred in entering a summary judgment in favor of Farmers. We reverse and remand.

Jason was seventeen years old in the summer of 1991 when he traveled from his parent's home in Copperas Cove, Texas to the home of his uncle and aunt (David and Vicki Brock) in Monett, Missouri in order to help David haul hay. According to the deposition testimony of Jason's mother, the primary purpose of the trip was to separate Jason from his girlfriend. Jason left Texas by plane on June 9, 1991, intending to stay in Missouri until the hay hauling was completed. His round-trip ticket called for him to return to Texas on July 12, 1991, but his father said that the July 12 date had been selected at random in order to obtain a round-trip fare which was cheaper, and it was their understanding that the return date could be changed.

Affidavits and deposition testimony presented to the trial court in connection with Farmers' motion for summary judgment indicated that it was not contemplated that Jason was moving to Missouri permanently, but he could have done so if he desired. Jason was enrolled to attend high school that fall in Copperas Cove where he intended to play football, but there was some discussion about him possibly staying in Missouri and going to school here during the following year. When he came to Missouri he brought some of his clothing, toilet items, a hat and a picture of his girlfriend, but left his other personal items in Texas. Jason had obtained his Texas driver's license approximately two weeks before leaving for Missouri, and testified in his deposition that he did not intend to stay permanently in Missouri.

On June 15, 1991 Jason was seriously injured in an automobile accident in Newton County, Missouri while riding as a passenger in an automobile operated by a friend. The insurance policy covering the operator and the automobile provided for liability coverage of $25,000. The Brock's, however, had five policies issued by Farmers, each of which provided uninsured motorist coverage, describing an uninsured motor vehicle as one on which the liability coverage was less than the limits of the uninsured motorists coverage provided by the Brock's policies. They also included coverage for medical expenses.

The policies issued to the Brocks each provided that an insured included a "family member," defined as "a person related to (the named insured) by blood, marriage or adoption who is a resident of (the named insured's) household." The trial court sustained Farmers' motion for summary judgment on the theory that Jason was a resident of Texas at the time of the accident, and therefore did not qualify as a "family member" under the definitions in the policies. Each of Jason's three points relied on in this appeal relate to the validity of that finding.

The criteria for reviewing a summary judgment on appeal are no different than those which should be employed by the trial court in ruling such motions. Southard v. Buccaneer Homes Corp., 904 S.W.2d 525, 528 (Mo.App. S.D.1995). The question of whether a summary judgment is proper is purely an issue of law founded on the record submitted. ITT Commercial Finance v. Mid-Am. Marine, 854 S.W.2d 371, 376 (Mo.banc 1993). We review the record, however, in the light most favorable to the party against whom the judgment was entered and accord that party the benefit of all reasonable inferences. Id. "In addition to determining whether any genuine issue of material fact exists which requires a trial, we also review whether the trial court's ruling was correct as a matter of law." Southard v. Buccaneer Homes Corp., 904 S.W.2d at 529.

In his first point on this appeal, Jason contends that the summary judgment was erroneously entered because there were genuine issues of fact concerning whether he was a "resident" of the Brock household at the time of his injury. ² In support, he correctly points out that pursuant to Rule 74.04 a movant must establish a right to a "judgment as a matter of law," and insofar as that right depends on the presence or absence of certain facts, the movant must also establish that there is no genuine dispute about those material facts. ITT Commercial Finance v. Mid-Am. Marine, 854 S.W.2d at 380. Because Farmers was a defending party in the instant declaratory judgment suit, it was not necessary that it controvert each element of Jason's claim so long as it made a showing that negated any one of the facts necessary for one of the elements of his claim. Id. at 381.

In his second point, Jason contends that the term "resident" is ambiguous, thereby requiring that the policies be interpreted broadly in favor of providing coverage. We consider these closely related points in conjunction with each other. ³

In entering the summary judgment the trial court held that there were no genuine issues of material fact concerning Jason's residence, and that Farmers was, therefore, entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. In explaining its ruling, the trial court referred to Clarkson v. MFA Mutual Insurance Co., 413 S.W.2d 10 (Mo.App. S.D.1967) and said:

"I am convinced that the term 'residence' is not ambiguous and that Jason Pruitt remained a resident of Texas because he intended to return there. As in Missouri, he did not 'intend permanency * * * not in the sense that the residence must never be changed, but in the sense that there is no intention to change it.' Jason Pruitt did reside in Missouri for the moment, but clearly intended to return to Texas."

The Clarkson case involved a claim by plaintiff for expenses incurred for his step-daughter under the medical payments coverage of his automobile liability policy. The policy provided for reimbursement of medical expenses for the named insured (plaintiff) and each "relative" who sustained bodily injury caused by accident while occupying an automobile. It defined "relative" as "the spouse of the named insured and any relative of the named insured or spouse who is a resident of and actually living in the same household as the named insured." Prior to the end of the school year, the step-daughter lived in plaintiff's home. On May 27, 1963, when school ended, she went to work at a resort twenty-five miles away where she stayed while working. She was injured in an automobile accident on July 27, and the issue was whether, at the time of the accident, she was a resident of plaintiff's household as required by the policy. The plaintiff contended that the policy definition of relative was ambiguous; that his step-daughter was unemancipated and on a temporary sojourn from home during the summer vacation; and that she was a relative under the policy definition.

In Clarkson the trial court agreed with plaintiff and entered a judgment for the limits of the medical pay coverage under his policy. The appellate court affirmed the judgment on appeal, saying that the trial court could have found that the place where the step-daughter was staying that summer was nothing more than a "temporary place of abode" and that she continued to be "a resident of and actually living in the same household" as plaintiff. Id. at 15. In doing so, however, the court said that "we must regard the terms 'reside,' 'resident' and 'residence' as ambiguous, elastic and relative ...," but said that there was no need for it to attempt to define those terms. Id. at 13. The court also said that at common law the terms "domicile" and "resident" or "residence" were used interchangeably and that the latter two terms are frequently, "although not always," used in that sense. Id. The court reasoned that in whatever context the terms "residence" and "resident" are used, "they almost invariably imply and connote 'something of permanence or continuity at least for an indefinite period, to the exclusion of another contemporaneous residence' ..., that is, 'intended permanency * * * not in the sense that the residence must never be changed, but in the sense that there is no intention to change it.' " Id. The court concluded that under the evidence the trial court was not clearly erroneous in holding that the step-daughter was a relative under the policy definition. Id. at 15.

Initially, we note at least two significant distinctions between the instant case and Clarkson. First, Clarkson involved a review of a declaratory judgment rendered after trial, whereas the instant case is a review of a summary judgment. Secondly, while the court in Clarkson determined that the step-daughter was still a "resident of and actually living in the same household" as plaintiff, it did not decide the issue which would be more apropos here, to wit: whether she could have also been a resident, for insurance purposes, of the place where she was staying that summer.

In the instant case, the trial court appears to have interpreted Clarkson as standing for the proposition that the concept of residence under such an insurance policy definition is synonymous with domicile by saying that "Jason Pruitt remained a resident of Texas because he intended to return there." It quoted from Clarkson in saying that as to Missouri, Jason "did not 'intend permanency * * * not in the sense that the residence must never be changed, but in the sense that there is no intention to...