Dyer v. Fidelity-Phenix Fire Ins.

WRIGHT, District Judge.

The primary question presented by this litigation is whether the damage to one of the oil well drilling rigs operated by plaintiff resulted from a “blowout” or a “kick”, the policy sued on not covering damage caused by a “kick”.

The problem is simplified to some extent by the decision of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Georgia Home Ins. Co. v. Means, 186 F.2d 783, 784, which held that an incident similar to the one in suit was a “blowout”. The pertinent provision of the policy here,1 however, is not identical with the policy in the Means case.2 In Means,…