Allstate Insurance v. Campbell

2010 Ohio 6312, 128 Ohio St. 3d 186
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 2010
Docket2009-2358
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 2010 Ohio 6312 (Allstate Insurance v. Campbell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allstate Insurance v. Campbell, 2010 Ohio 6312, 128 Ohio St. 3d 186 (Ohio 2010).

Opinions

Lanzinger, J.

{¶ 1} In this appeal arising from a declaratory-judgment action to determine whether insurance coverage exists in a lawsuit involving injuries stemming from a misguided teenage prank, we are asked to apply the doctrine of inferred intent with respect to intentional-act exclusions. Because we decline to allow the intent to harm to be inferred as a matter of law in cases in which the harm suffered cannot be deemed an inherent result of the intentional act, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals in part and remand to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Case Background

{¶ 2} On the evening of November 18, 2005, a group of teenage boys, including Dailyn Campbell, Jesse Howard, and Corey Manns, stole a lightweight Styrofoam target deer typically used for shooting or archery. The boys fastened a piece of wood to the target so that it could stand upright. Along with Carson Barnes, they then placed it just below the crest of a hill in Hardin County on County Road 144, a hilly and curvy two-lane road with a speed limit of 55 miles per hour. They put the target on the road after dark — between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m. — in a place in which drivers would be unable to see it until they were 15 to 30 yards away. The boys then remained in the area so that they could watch the reactions of motorists. About five minutes after the boys placed the target in the road, appellee Robert Roby drove over the hill. Roby took evasive action, but ultimately lost control of his vehicle, which left the road, overturned, and came to [188]*188rest in a nearby field. This accident caused serious injuries to both Roby and his passenger, appellee Dustin Zachariah.

{¶ 3} Roby and Zachariah1 filed suits in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas against the boys, their parents, and their insurance companies, among others, seeking recovery for the damages sustained in the accident.

{¶ 4} Appellants Allstate Insurance Company (“Allstate”), American Southern Insurance Company (“American Southern”), Erie Insurance Exchange (“Erie”), and Grange Mutual Casualty Company (“Grange”) filed declaratory judgment actions in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas seeking a declaration that they are under no duty to defend or indemnify their insureds, the juveniles and their parents, in the Roby and Zachariah lawsuits.

{¶ 5} After consolidating the declaratory judgment actions, the trial court granted the insurance companies’ motions for summary judgment. Although the court did not find that the boys directly intended to cause harm, it inferred their intent as a matter of law, based in part on the finding that their conduct was substantially certain to result in harm. The trial court thus concluded that none of the pertinent insurance policies provided coverage and that none of the insurers had a duty to defend or indemnify its insureds in the pending bodily injury actions.

{¶ 6} The Tenth District Court of Appeals reversed, holding that genuine issues of material fact exist over whether the boys intended to cause harm when they placed the deer target in the road, whether harm was substantially certain to result from their actions, and whether those actions fall within the scope of their individual insurance policies. Allstate Ins. Co. v. Campbell, Franklin App. Nos. 09AP-306, 09AP-307, 09AP-308, 09AP-309, 09AP-318, 09AP-319, 09AP-320, and 09AP-321, 2009-Ohio-6055, 2009 WL 3823362, ¶ 53. The court of appeals expressed uncertainty regarding the strength of inferred intent in Ohio but noted that appellate courts have expanded the doctrine beyond the crimes of murder and molestation. Id. at ¶ 39. The Tenth District Court of Appeals stated that there was no dispute that the boys had acted intentionally; the disputed issue was whether they had intended harm or injury to follow their intentional act. Id. at ¶ 50. The court concluded that because questions of fact remained over the certainty of harm resulting from the boys’ actions, their conduct did not support an objective inference of an intent to injure as a matter of law. Id. at ¶ 53.

{¶ 7} We granted discretionary jurisdiction over the second proposition of law of each insurer, as well as the third proposition of law of Allstate and Grange.2 [189]*189Allstate Ins. Co. v. Campbell, 124 Ohio St.3d 1506, 2010-Ohio-799, 922 N.E.2d 969. The insurers’ second proposition of law states that the doctrine of inferred intent as applied to an intentional-act exclusion in an insurance policy is not limited to cases of sexual molestation or homicide but may be applied where undisputed facts establish that harm was substantially certain to occur as a result of the insured’s conduct. Allstate and Grange’s third proposition of law states that their policies’ exclusionary language denotes an objective as opposed to a subjective standard of coverage, rendering an insured’s subjective intent irrelevant.

II. Legal Analysis

A. The Language of the Insurance Agreements

{¶ 8} “It is axiomatic that an insurance company is under no obligation to its insured, or to others harmed by the actions of an insured, unless the conduct alleged of the insured falls within the coverage of the policy.” Gearing v. Nationwide Ins. Co. (1996), 76 Ohio St.3d 34, 36, 665 N.E.2d 1115. “Coverage is provided if the conduct falls within the scope of coverage defined in the policy, and not within an exception thereto.” Id.

{¶ 9} Homeowners’ insurance policies typically provide coverage for harm accidentally caused by their insureds; intentional torts are excluded. Most policies contain an intentional-act exclusion, which states that the insurance company will not be liable for harm intentionally caused by the insured. But when there is no evidence of direct intent to cause harm and the insured denies the intent to cause any harm, the insured’s intent to cause harm will be inferred as a matter of law in certain instances. Gearing, 76 Ohio St.3d 34, 665 N.E.2d 1115, paragraph one of the syllabus.

{¶ 10} Although the central question is whether intent to harm should be inferred as a matter of law under the circumstances of this case, insurance coverage is finally determined by the policy language. As a preliminary matter, we recognize that each policy issued by the four insurers contains similar language defining an “occurrence” as an accident and providing coverage for bodily injury arising from an occurrence. Each insurer, however, uses unique exclusionary language.

[190]*1901. Allstate’s exclusionary language for intentional act

{¶ 11} Allstate issued policies to a parent of Dailyn Campbell and the parents of Jesse Howard.3 The exclusion portion of the Allstate policies provides:

{¶ 12} “Losses We Do Not Cover * * *:
{¶ 13} “1. We do not cover any bodily injury or property damage intended by, or which may reasonably be expected to result from the intentional or criminal acts or omissions of, any insured person. This exclusion applies even if:
{¶ 14} “a) such insured person lacks the mental capacity to govern his or her conduct;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2010 Ohio 6312, 128 Ohio St. 3d 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allstate-insurance-v-campbell-ohio-2010.