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Smith v. State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.2/11/2003
to consider the applicability of the policy's more general business-purposes exclusion. See Burgi v. Eckes, 354 N.W.2d 514, 519 (Minn. App. 1984) (stating that it is a rule of contract construction"that the specific in a writing governs over the general"). The court then concluded that the barn was covered under the private-garage exception to the rental exclusion.
We believe the district court's construction fails to harmonize the two independent exclusions by permitting Smith to invoke the private-garage exception to the rental exclusion even where, as we have concluded here, her rental activity was undertaken for business purposes. See Current Tech. Concepts, Inc., 530 N.W.2d at 543 (stating that policy provisions should be read so as to give each other meaning). We believe that the intent of the policy is better served by reading the business exclusion as precluding coverage for all rental activity undertaken for business purposes, as was Smith's. We therefore conclude that the business exclusion controlled Smith's conduct, that Smith was not entitled to invoke the private-garage exception to the rental exclusion, and that the damage to the pole barn that occurred while Smith was renting the barn for business purposes was not covered under Smith's homeowner's policy.
DECISION
The district court erred by concluding that Smith was entitled to coverage under the private-garage exception to the policy's rental exclusion. Under the policy's controlling business-purposes exclusion, coverage for damage to the pole barn was precluded by Smith's undisclosed use of the barn for business purposes. State Farm is entitled to summary judgment.
Reversed and remanded.
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