Typos do not automatically constitute ambiguities in Missouri Courts
In Mendota v. Ware, Appellant (Ware) obtained a wrongful death judgment of $175,000 in damages against the driver of the car involved in a car accident of which her father was a passenger. Ware sought satisfaction of the entire judgment from respondent’s insurance carrier, Mendota. Ware argued that the Policy contained a typo that described property damage as “Coverage A” when it should have been designated as “Coverage B” thereby rendering the Policy ambiguous with no effective limits of liability. Mendota refused to pay more than the specified $25,000 policy limit for bodily injury claims and filed a declaratory judgment asking the circuit court to determine that the Policy was unambiguous and that the policy limit for bodily injury was $25,000. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment and the circuit court granted Mendota’s motion. Ware appealed. Relying on a single-character typo on the Policy’s Declaration page, Ware contends that the policy should be interpreted in her favor and impose no monetary limit on liability of coverage. The Court of Appeals relied on a recent Missouri Supreme Court definition of ambiguity as a “duplicity, indistinctness, or uncertainty in the meaning of the language of the policy. Language is ambiguous if it is reasonably open to different constructions.” Burns v. Smith, 303 S.W.3d 505, 509 (Mo. banc 2010). The court noted that despite the “blatant” typographical error on the Policy’s Declaration page, the Policy can neither be construed to impose no monetary limit, nor can it be construed to impose a limit other than the policy’s specified $25,000 limit. The Court also found the Policy to contain straight forward terms on how the limits of liability would operate. The Court took its decision a step further and noted that even if the Policy were deemed ambiguous, Ware would only be entitled to a resolve the ambiguity consistent with a reasonable expectation as to what coverage would be provided. Ware’s argument of unlimited liability is contrary to the reasonable expectation as to what coverage would be provided and goes beyond what any fair interpretation will allow.
