Sanborn v. Federal Crop Insurance

BARNARD, P. J. This is an action to recover on an insurance contract covering a cotton crop to be grown by the plaintiffs on 70 acres of land during the 1946 season. The contract insured the plaintiffs, on an average yield basis, against loss due to unavoidable causes including damage resulting from frost, insect infestation and failure of the water supply. The contract also excepted from its coverage any loss caused by neglect of the insured, including failure to follow good farming practices or failure to properly apply irrigation water if available.

There was an admitted partial crop failure, and there is no dispute as to the extent or value of the shortage as compared with the average yield. The plaintiffs sued for $9,005.20, alleging that this shortage was due to unavoidable causes, and that they had done everything required of them by the contract and the rules and regulations of the defendant and United States Department of Agriculture. The answer denied these allegations and alleged that any loss resulted from a failure to follow good farming practices. It was further alleged that if any loss occurred through unavoidable causes, [61]the plaintiffs had failed to give a written notice of probable loss immediately thereafter and before the crop was harvested. A jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs for $6,104.40, less $511.94 which was admittedly due to the defendant upon its counterclaim. Judgment was entered accordingly, and the defendant has appealed.

The insurance contract provided, as a condition precedent to any liability, that the insured should establish that any loss claimed was directly caused by one or more of the hazards insured against, and was not caused by any of the hazards not insured against. The appellant first contends that the respondents did not sustain the burden of proof thus resting upon them. In effect, it is contended that the evidence is not sufficient to support the implied finding that the amount of loss or damage to this crop, found by the jury, was caused by hazards insured against and was not caused by hazards not insured against.

The appellant contends that the evidence shows that this cotton was planted too late; that the land was infested with Johnson and Bermuda grass; that respondents did not follow good farming practices in attempting to keep these grasses down; that they did not properly irrigate the land; that their failure to obtain water for another irrigation during August was caused by their own act, and not by an inability to secure water; and that they did not establish that their loss did not result from their own careless farming. While a part of the evidence „ is to that effect, the evidence as a whole is sharply conflicting in this regard. It rather conclusively appears that there was an acute shortage of water during the whole of August. There is evidence that the respondents tried to get water for an irrigation in August and that water was' unavailable until August 29 and then not in sufficient quantity. There is also evidence that the land was properly farmed in the usual manner. This entire question was one of fact for the jury. There was evidence of damage to the crop from lack of water, from wire worms or cut worms earlier in the season, and from a heavy frost early in November; that this frost resulted in severe damage throughout that area; and that this fact was known to the appellant’s local representatives. While the percentage of loss attributable to each of the three causes above named was estimated differently by various witnesses at various times, the evidence as a whole is amply sufficient to establish that the damage to the crop