Clasing v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Company
Iowa Court of Appeals
771 N.W.2d 652 (2009)
- Written by Kyli Cotten, JD
Facts
Jay and Deanna Clasing (plaintiffs) ran a hog-confinement operation. The business’s office was under repairs from a previous fire when an ice storm caused a power outage. Due to the repairs, the alarm system for the operation’s four swine barns was not functioning. In one of the barns, the ice storm caused a malfunction preventing proper ventilation, and a large number of hogs died without the alarm being sounded. The Clasings filed a claim with their insurer, State Farm Fire & Casualty Company (State Farm) (defendant). State Farm denied the claim, stating that an exclusion to the policy for loss of livestock by suffocation applied. Particularly, Jay Clasing answered “Yes” to State Farm’s question “So there’s really no questions as to the hogs suffocated?” in a recorded statement. The Clasings sued State Farm for breach of contract and claimed that the hogs did not suffocate, but rather died because inadequate ventilation into the building occurred due to the office fire, an insured occurrence. In support thereof, the Clasings filed an affidavit of a veterinarian who opined that the hogs likely died from being overheated. State Farm filed a motion for summary judgment. The trial court granted the motion, finding that a legal cause of the hogs’ deaths was the ice storm, but the deaths were directly and immediately caused by suffocation, which precluded coverage per the exclusion. The Clasings appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Sackett, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 816,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.