William F. Bryan, as of the Estate of G. T. "Tommy" Townsend, and General Insurance Company of America v. Continental Casualty Company

The question presented on appeal is whether the District Court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs-appellees, and in holding that the insurance policy issued by appellant, Continental Casualty Company was unambiguous, and extended on its face individual liability coverage to G. T. “Tommy” Townsend. For reasons hereafter discussed, this court affirms the trial court.

The crux of this case is the interpretation of the declaration/face sheet of the insurance policy in question. That sheet reads:

Appellant predicates its appeal on the depositions of Mr. John Wenig, who prepared the policy in question and Mrs. Nelda Pickering, an employee of the partnership and Mr. Townsend.

Briefly, Mr. Wenig testified that it was his intent to insure only two persons and entities viz., Engebretson-Grupe Co., as a partnership and K. L. Engebretson as an individual. He further testified that he checked both the “individual” and “partnership” boxes to distinguish between two separate operations (one which was individually owned by K. L. Engebretson and the other which was partnership owned by both Mr. Engebretson and Mr. Townsend). We find that this contention is not supported…