Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance Co. v. Faircloth, Jr., No. 15-3378 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseAfter defendant purchased an automobile insurance policy from Nationwide, he wrecked his car and Nationwide rescinded the policy. Nationwide then sought declaratory judgment that it had no duty to indemnify or defend defendant under the policy’s coverage because defendant made material misrepresentations in his online insurance application. The district court granted summary judgment to Nationwide. The court affirmed the judgment, concluding that defendant materially misrepresented his primary use of the vehicle as "work" instead of "business." In this case, defendant used the vehicle to make business-related deliveries, putting over 1,200 miles a week on the vehicle for such deliveries. Because the district court correctly determined that defendant failed to raise a fact issue about how the application screen appeared, the court presumes that the online application contained the parentheticals at issue, which are not ambiguous as a matter of law. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Smith, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Murphy, Circuit Judge] Civil case - Insurance. The record established that had the insurer known the insured's use of his vehicle was for a delivery business rather than commuting to work it would not have issued the same policy and the misrepresentation was, therefore, material, and provided a ground for the insurer's decision to rescind the policy.
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