Farm Air Flying Service v. Southeastern Aviation Insurance Services, Inc.

Opinion

PUGLIA, P. J.

Plaintiff Farm Air Flying Service appeals from a judgment in favor of defendant Southeastern Aviation Insurance Services, Inc. (Southeastern). Plaintiff sought a judicial declaration that a policy of

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aviation insurance issued by Southeastern provided coverage for a crop dusting loss. The loss occurred when plaintiff’s pilot sprayed the herbicide MCPA on a wild rice crop owned by Donald Sills. Plaintiff had been hired to treat Sills’s cultured rice crop which was located in a field adjacent to the wild rice crop. The application of herbicide to the wrong crop resulted in damage of approximately $34,000.

Plaintiff reimbursed Sills for the damage and sought indemnification from Southeastern. Southeastern denied the claim, citing exclusion No. 4 in the policy which precludes coverage for “injury to . . . crops ... to which the aerial application is deliberately made whether in error or not.”

Prior to trial, Southeastern moved successfully for a summary adjudication to the effect that exclusion No. 4 is clear and unambiguous. At the conclusion of trial, the court ruled the policy as a whole is unambiguous and that on the evidence presented, plaintiff has no reasonable expectation of coverage for the loss incurred. We agree and shall affirm.

I

Policy endorsement No. 1, entitled “Aerial Applicators Liability Endorsement,” contains the following agreement, inter alia:

“B.

Coverage

B.—Property Damage Liability.

“To pay on behalf of the Insured all sums which the Insured shall become legally obligated to pay as damages because of injury to or destruction of property, including the loss of use thereof, caused by an occurrence and arising out of the ownership, maintenance or use of the aircraft including aerial application (as herein defined).”

The aerial applicator’s liability endorsement defines “aerial application” as: “[T]he spraying or dropping of chemical or seed whether or not such dropping of chemical or seed occurs as a direct result of collison of the aircraft with the ground or other object.”